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GETTING THE TEAM TOGETHER AT LAST

Everyone except Tony, who wished to do something totally new, was happy to swap objectives, thus leaving me with the easier task of replacing just Dave. The public profile of the Munros also had the immediate effect of procuring a charity in the form of the Royal National Institute for the Blind. They quickly promised to provide a car and van, and would see what they could do with regard to ferries, maps and petrol.

Particularly as the charity was looking at Scotland rather than Britain as a whole, I wished to redress the balance of south of the border runners, so I was really only looking for a Scottish based final team member. This eventually came in the unlikely form of Graeme Bartlett from Forres. A very strong runner both on the hill and cross-country, but one whose experience of distance was confined solely to walking, and that mostly in good weather. He certainly lacked the huge experience of the rest of the team, but I had seen how quickly good runners often take to distance events when they try, and it was also quickly clear that he had a natural ability to read maps despite his lack of hill experience.

It was decided to have our first meeting on New Year's Day at Colin Powell's house in Shropshire. Graeme was understandably not going to make the trip, and Ross would try to attend en route from the Alps in fact arriving soon after the start.

The meeting had a twofold purpose. The obvious one was to decide on matters of policy and designate tasks, but I also wanted all the newcomers to appreciate just what would be involved. Trefor and Julie volunteered for a whole range of tasks including that of being treasurer and doing the pre-event shopping.

We spent some time discussing safety, deciding that with the fast time allocations I had come up with, we did not wish to alert the Mountain Rescue any earlier than the 1990 rule which was double the schedule, discounting time overnight. With this in mind we made it a rule that survival bags, (in addition to the basic emergency pack which was always to be taken,) must be carried in all legs which were potentially either in the dark or in bad weather. In particular it was noted that when going into remote changeovers, everyone should always be prepared for the worst. It was also agreed that people would not go in early to changeovers, but would wait until their “trigger” so that they were as up to date as possible of the expected time for action.

Along with this it was agreed that everyone would always get off the hill and return to wherever directed as soon as possible after finishing. We also decided that it was a good idea to encourage runners to be accompanied into as many remote changeovers as possible, and that the company of other runners was a positive thing as long as the other person realised that it was up to them to go at our pace.

We discussed sleep, and agreed that the mothership would be a quiet place every night. Incoming runners would have hot water and food left out, and would be expected to help themselves as quietly as possible. If it was necessary to move, Colin would get up and drive whilst the others slept. During the day, it was unreasonable to expect the mothership to be quiet – more often than not the van would be nearby to sleep in. In this case it would always be designated a quiet area.

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