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AFTERTHOUGHTS

It was sad that the peak an hour target, which to me was just that, was taken so seriously by the team as achieve or fail. Having at one time thought it was out of sight, brilliant weather and cracking times from Rannoch Moor to Glen Affric meant that we all felt that it was back as a distinct possibility. However the last 72 hours of almost continuous bad weather had a huge effect and many team members lost motivation to keep pushing resulting in a major slow down at the end.

We beat the record by 8 minutes short of 21 hours which I guess has to be a pretty big achievement when the overall weather is taken into account.

Counting a good weather leg as one with little significant thick fog or heavy rain (Wind and temperature ignored),
a bad weather leg as one with very significant hill fog and or heavy rain,
and a moderate weather leg as one with a small proportion of thick fog or the odd heavy shower the stats for the 2 events are as follows:

               1990    good 51    bad 21    moderate 11
               1993    good 33    bad 38    moderate 12

THE CHARACTERS

 Ifor Powell

Ifor was undeniably the star of the team – quietly determined, he got on with everybody. A very sound navigator losing little time, even on a foggy night. A major memory of him was sitting patiently waiting for an upcoming leg, he always seemed determined to be awake so that he could get on with his upcoming activity without delay.

7 Ifors would have smashed the peak an hour target

Myself

I consider myself the second strongest member of the team because I was pretty much unaffected by the weather, only being slowed when the fog combined with night to make the ground hard to see. I had learned a lot from 1990 and despite organising it all I think I made myself be more biddable than I had been in 1990. I tried very hard to keep my frustrations to myself.

Steve Jones

A very competent navigator and a strong runner, really excellent in fine weather and great with the rest of the team. I was surprised how much the weather seemed to affect his motivation.

Mark Hartell

I didn't know him from before, and our paths crossed remarkably little, but he was so easy to get on with. He craved the wild places and hated evidence of modern man, so I guess that now the Munros will be getting less and less appealing to him with wind turbines, mobile phone masts and constructed paths proliferating since we did this relay.

Craig Harwood

The sheer guts of the man in dealing with his colossal ankle sprain were just awe inspiring. He was not a great runner before the event, and I called him up because I thought he'd be someone that would just drive through bad weather, and his climbing skills would be an asset in the Cuillins. It so happened that he had less bad weather than anyone else.

Just over a week following the relay he and Mark ran the elite solo category in the Saunders Mountain Marathon. Mark won it and Craig was second, an unthinkable result for him previously.

Graeme Bartlett

The strongest runner of the team and also a competent, but inexperienced and not confident navigator in bad weather of which he had an absurdly large amount. (I make it 5 summits from which he had a view – 2 at night by Glencoe, 1 beautiful day in Glen Lyon, 1 through the swirling mists on Beinn Fhada and 1 murky just below the cloud on Mayar).

Prior knowledge of any hills increased his confidence no end, and he had an over reliance on walker's comments in books, when for example he would not take my advice that the Devil's Ridge in the Mamores was nothing for him to be concerned about, and wasted a good hour trying to bypass it.

Ross Powell

Ross came with his partner Julie who unfortunately showed no desire to communicate with the rest of us and definitely had the idea that Ross and she would find accommodation wherever they were. This did not fit in well with a lot of Ross's night time schedules. Consequently Ross must have been torn between his feelings for her and his commitment to us. He also seemed pretty disorganised, not planning ahead at all and there were a few occasions where, without prompting from others, he would have failed to get anywhere near a changeover in time.

Despite his apparent lack of motivation he was definitely determined to complete all his legs properly and whenever the weather was fine (which for him was not often, second only to Graeme,) he showed his abilities with great times.

His failure to write any accounts was for me and for this story a further frustration.

Colin Powell

Colin was a star. Although semi professional, he was dedicated to helping the event succeed just as he had been in 1990. He had agreed that he would drive when triggered by the plan regardless of the time of day or night. He would quietly get up and gently drive the mothership whilst others slept. He was always available to help the team out in any emergency.

Liz Peart

Liz was a great asset to us. Prior to the event she asked each member which foods they liked and catered accordingly. She always produced wholesome meals and accepted that runners had to come and go and catered for those not able to be there at mealtimes. Always cheerful.

Tom

Liz's partner Tom was not a member of the team but a regular visitor. He blotted his copybook in my eyes by threatening to refuse to bring supplies and personnel to the start thus forcing me to drive miles out of my way to the start on Skye to relieve him of some contents of his car which, whilst no doubt inconvenient, he was able to drive from Edinburgh to Dalwhinnie with.

That said he did add a lot of logistical help, and with his full on presence, not least in getting us into the Army facilities at Fersit.

One of the memories of the relay is of Tom chasing after his dog who looked determined to run over the Cuillin with Steve on the opening leg.

Paul Driver

I am not sure who brought Paul Driver along but he was great to have there. He ran with several people on a variety of legs. We had discussed being joined by other runners before the relay and it was agreed that this would be great, but that they would have to understand that we would not wait for them. Sadly for me I had to implement this twice in Paul's case.

The first time, after he had so much eased my exhausted bike and walk in from Glenshee, he failed to wake up as quickly as I did when Mark arrived 2 hours later, so I never saw him on the leg.

The second time near Loch Treig he had been out all night with Mark, and solo so he simply was too tired to maintain my pace. I felt he would have been a great team member.

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