The Charlie Ramsay Round

The start

The morning after we arrived I was woken by a man knocking on the van door holding our awning by one rope with it flying behind him like a kite, all my gear everywhere. I look up at the cloud line now, which has lifted a little higher up the slopes, and wonder what lies in wait this morning. This is the morning I have planned and trained for since before I had surgery on my shoulder in November to attach an artificial ligament - replacing the one that came off when I crashed out of the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross. I have done twice weekly Sufferfest sessions on the turbo trainer, including this year's Tour of Sufferlandria in full.  I have been getting up every morning and running hill repeats for an hour and a half at five in the morning, I've been working on my speed endurance at the track on a Tuesday and trained alongside some running greats. I've got a Greenhead Monsters running vest to start in to remind me of the work I have put in on the track alongside, well usually behind, a pretty special running group. If it all works out I will finish in my Bingley Harriers vest as I have on my previous rounds.

I've arranged to meet outside the Youth Hostel at about 11:15 so I set off walking on my own to get there. People start gathering and the pre-event feelings grow.  The feeling is a mixture of dread, anticipation, fear, unworthiness and reluctance. What makes me think I can do this? What am I doing here?

I have managed to add pressure on to myself by wanting to complete this first time so all three have been completed at the first attempt. I can't think about that though. That's no way to prepare and there is no helpful side to that thought, I am not running all three today, just this one - and then only one Munro at a time.

Even running through my preparation and planning doesn't help. I will be fine once I have set off. We have some photos taken and I notice Ian, who I will be setting off with although we are independent of each other, has his poles with him. I must have spent several hours considering whether to take mine (borrowed) with me or not and have decided not to.

I like attention to detail on these rounds. It's the details  that ultimately count. Seeing Ian with his poles immediately makes me realise I have made an error not starting with them. I have support enough that they can be carried if I don't need them but I know they will make a difference to how I feel. I jog back to the van for them, laughing at this little warm up I am doing for a 24 hour run. Smiling at how, even with my obsession with detail, I have made this change at the last minute. But it feels right.

Leg 1 - Ben Rowley and Pawel Cymbalista

We set off up Ben Nevis at a steady clip, heading in to cloud and wind just after Red Burn. It gets increasingly busy and I climb the steps to the summit and photo bomb a couple of family snaps, touch the summit and go. Once down the steps I've lost sight of Ben and call out a couple of times. There he is, and we're off.

Down the wet rock, into the wind we go. I'm on Ben's heels, I like wet rock and can maintain a quicker speed over it than a lot of people I know. Not as quick as Ben though who dances over it as we chat/shout to each other about 50 mph gusts and the accuracy of forecasts.

Carn Mor Deag is summitted and we seem to have lost Pawel. I find out later that he has stayed with Ian but Ian has sent him on as he is part of my support team. He catches us up and we stop to put our over trousers on before the climb to Aonach Mor. This is a good call from Ben and I will not take them off all day. Already I have had to adjust my gators and I decide I will adjust them only once more before ignoring them. They slide from under my shoe almost as soon as I think this so put them from my mind..

Ben points out a deer, it is camouflaged well and has furry antlers. It watches us running by and then disappears as we climb back into the cloud and wind. Conversation so far has has been somewhat limited due to the conditions. Hoods up, rain and wind are not overly conducive to meaningful chats with running partners. Despite this Ben and Pawel have been working well as a team. I am fed every half an hour, Pawel either getting what I ask for or choosing something for me to have and getting it to me on the move.

My food is in bags, each bag has enough in it for about 5 hours of running. That's ten things, one to be taken every half an hour. There is a mix of cereal bars, Torq gels, sugar in the form of Dextro tablets, Kendal Mint Cake and Nut Bombs - which are just sweet enough to be moreish but just savoury enough to be palatable all day. Little and often works for me and I am well practised now in eating every half an hour and on the move. There are sachets of energy drink in each bag as well just in case I can't eat and need liquid energy early on.

What I don't realise until a few days later is just how much filming and photography
Pawel has been doing. He will create an amazing record of this first part of the journey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYPab9EpzrE

Ben stops to tie his shoelace and sends me on to the summit cairn of Aonach Mor. Helen is there waiting with a bag for Ian and she shouts encouragement while sheltering from the wind. Brilliant. Seeing people makes such a difference when you are out for a long time. Having said that I don't stop and touch and go. On the way down I see Ian coming up and wish him well.  He looks focused.

I realise that because I am not carrying the tracker, Ben has it in his pack, it will have missed this summit. Never mind, it is not about the tracker as I have company and I am carrying my own Garmin for a trace of the round. The tracker proves invaluable all day - providing accurate information for my support team as to where we are and where we are likely to be at what time in order to meet. It also provides the opportunity to follow from afar which may parents are doing (although I don't know this at the time) and by the end they are trying to work out if the distance I have left can be covered in the time limit and just what am I doing going the wrong way at the end? (I wasn't carrying the tracker then either!) Cover My Tracks have provided the tracker - based in Fort William and highly recommended.

In my mind I have divided leg 1 in to three parts. Ben Nevis, CMD, Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag then the Grey Corries to Stob Ban and then Stob Coire Easain, Mheadhior and down to the dam. After the first four I am about 15 minutes up on my own schedule. I have written my own schedule based on my recce times and experiences running. Some summits have extra time built in and a couple of them are quite tight. The plan is working so far and I know I have allowed time ahead for me to gain before Fersit and heading in to the night.

We drop down from Aonah Beag and then I take the lead as Ben and Pawel stop to fill up with water. I create the fiction in my head that I am running them off my heels. It's a nice fiction and helps me contour round the lump before the next summit. Ben comments on my contouring speed and I smile - I was enjoying myself immensely and the poles are helping to remove the extra weight on my ankles, adding stability.

It has definitely brightened now. The cloud is definitely lighter in colour and more wispy the further east we travel. This is a fine way to run the Grey Corries, grey now for a different reason than the rocks that cover their peaks. I love the undulating, rocky ridges and paths with not a false summit in sight. What you see is what you get - when you think you're there you are! We zig zag up Stob ban - zig is in to the wind, zag is wind assisted. It's over before it's really started and I'm feeling good.

Earlier I mentioned to Ben that on the way to Easain I will put my music on, a mixture of Adele and Kasabian, in order to get me through the long climb up and balance the effort against the dread. Coming off Stob Ban though I realise I don't need it! I shall save it for later when it might come in useful. The wind drops as we drop to the river and start the climb up and we can chat properly for the first time. Ben points out cloudberries, among other things, and Pawel and I take note. Then Pawel and I start chatting about fishing, forestry, teaching and food. He casually drops in that this will be his longest run. I am stunned - I have met him only once before (and seen him rather than met him) yet he has extended his own limits and looked after me at the same time. Ben and Pawel, who do know each other, have been the perfect team and as we descend to the dam, seemingly forever in the cloud, I realise I will be 50 minutes ahead of schedule.

50 minutes. Wow! I have not pushed too hard, I have been travelling at a conversational pace even while not being the conditions for conversation. This is at least 10 minutes ahead of my most optimistic projection.

We see someone ahead waving and then running off. It's hard to see who but at least there is advance warning we are on our way. As we turn on to the track towards the dam my mind clicks in to 10 minute stop mode and I start to take off the tops I will change and bark out instructions and questions to Sally who is waiting. Coffee, beans, Cornish pasty, new team, mittens, tops, head torch, hat, go. Brilliant.

Leg time 8 hours 6 minutes  Clock time  20:06  Schedule 20:56  50 minutes up
Fersit - Sally Parkin 10 minutes

Being 50 minutes up here is great news, when I reccied this part the clag was down and I spent the whole day thinking I was going in the wrong direction. Now I have additional daylight for the first summit and the cloud has cleared for the first time from the very tops as I have been coming down to the dam. I stash my poles with my support as I will be concentrating on the navigation - neither Robert (who I have literally just met) or Joshua (who I ran from the railway bridge to the end with previously) know this bit. It never ceases to amaze me that there are so many people who enjoy giving their time and help so freely to help others. I know everyone gets something out of it but in the cold light of day this is a 6 hour leg, finishing at around 2am if all goes to plan, followed by a 3 mile walk back to a car driven by a stranger for an hour back to base. It's one of the things I enjoy most about these rounds, both supporting and doing them, the gathering of like minded people.

Leg 2 - Joshua Jardine and Robert Crawford

Across the dam, chatted introductions along the railway. Joke about watching out for trains. Then get out of the way as the joke falls flat and a diesel thunders past, horn reverberating around the valley.  We laugh heading up the hill, what a start!

"Go the way you know" becomes something of a mantra for this leg. I point out different lines where I know them but keep adding "But I haven't reccied that way so we're going this way". Joshua takes the lead and despite not having done this leg before needs very little direction to hit the perfect line. I'm not quite sure how he's doing this but it's very impressive. Sgriodain is a climb I have been dreading and although steep, scrambly in places (I think I went wrong there, sorry guys!) and relentless we gain it in good time and in clear daylight. It makes sense to me now the lines I took on the recce, because I can see! On the way to Chno Dearg the cloud comes back and darkness falls.

As we look back we can see the torches of Ian and Zoe approaching the last summit together. Very impressive. As we gain the summit of Chno Dearg I give the cairn a little kiss - it's summit number 12, the halfway summit. I keep us together and let them know that now in the cloud and dark the ground is going to suddenly disappear down a vertical semi-scree slope. It does and my leg immediately cramps, I am fed a handful of peanuts which I wash down with water. It's not a long round unless you get cramp somewhere. It's a bit dicey in the cloud and dark and I am beginning to realise my head torch is not nearly as bright as my two companions. Last time I ran at night I enviously compared my own torch to others but I've not done anything about it.

I'm a little worried by the river, given how much rain we have had today and over the last week, but this worry is unfounded and we cross easily. Now it's just up and along, up and along, up and along the steep climb to the more undulating summit plateau. I glance behind at one point and see a light coming up the shoulder of the mountain. Good, Ian is on his way. On the way off the summit I decide to change my batteries and that improves matters no end! Maybe I was being a bit harsh on my head torch after all.

As we cross under the railway bridge Joshua pulls out a can of coke. This is just what I need and I neck it. This is a long, mainly uphill drag now to Loch Eilde Mor with another river to cross. "I've got skittles for later on as well". Brilliant! Joshua and I ran this bit together supporting Ben and Adnan so he drops in to the lead again and path finds. Robert and I chat and he keeps on top of offering me food and water. We slow to wait for a herd of giant cattle who are in our path at one point. "Hup, Hup" and they move on at their own pace.

Robert and Joshua have been good company and a good team from the start. A steady mix of food, support, positivity and conversation as we get to know each other. This is a real boost when running and especially now I am so far in to the run. It all lifts my spirits and there is a tangible 'can do' spirit which permeates everything we do. Head torch going? No problem. Lost the path? No problem. Raging torrent to cross? Ah.

The river has been sounding pretty intimidating as we have run alongside it in the dark and when we get to where I crossed previously it is plainly not possible. We run on a bit then Joshua jumps in to try and find a place. He settles on a stretch with just one deep section in the very middle where he falls forward and goes up to his chest at one point but gets across. I make my way to the edge of where the deep section is and put one foot out. Even in the dark Joshua clearly sees the abject terror in my face and he reaches out a hand which pulls me across. He then does the same for Robert and we celebrate with a handful of skittles and a swig of water.

Now we head to the track, and that sounds great but the track is broadly uphill and a pain. It's also a longer way than it feels like it ought to be! I keep expecting to be able to see lights from the camp by the ruin but we are upon it without any warning.

Leg time 5 hours 59 Clock time 02:15  Schedule 02:47  32 minutes up

Loch Eilde Mor 10 minutes
Mick Watson, Helen Smith and Louis Parkin

Mick, my father in law, walked up earlier in the day with Louis (my 6 year old) to set up and wild camp. Louis is asleep and wants to stay in his tent but before I go I push my head through and give him a cuddle to which he smiles and then burrows down deeper in to his sleeping bag. What a boost the simple things in life give.

Coffee is on hand and Helen has done a brilliant job of getting Andy and Dave here on time for me, following the tracker. I'm not changing anything here. Kit the same, shoes the same - it's working well so don't mess with it. I give out the food I want carrying, take in coffee, ask for my Bingley Harriers vest to be taken for later and generally bark out orders! The ten minutes feels like a long time as I am not changing and I enjoy the rest. I use it to set myself against Sgurr Eilde Mor - the first climb that will take just over an hour. I put it to Andy and Dave that this first climb is important to get us off on the right foot. There is still a lot of running left to do but with this ticked off and daylight not far away it will be a real achievement.

I give Dave the Garmin to carry, it is his after all, and although neither Dave nor Andy know the way I am confident of my own knowledge of this leg to lead as long as they keep a check that I'm making sense. Before the first climb I ask for the poles unpacking. Over an hour, straight up - there will be no hiding place on this climb and I don't want to start losing minutes now. In truth I am realising I have under allowed for the effect of darkness, not by much but by enough for me to know I need to concentrate. On several of the summits ahead I have over allowed so there should be some easy wins there in terms of time, but they lie ahead and even though I am starting the final leg it's still over 9 hours of running.

Leg 3 - Dave Stephenson and Andy Gibbons

Dave and Andy I know well, I have run with them many times and know they will set me straight as we get closer to the end and I start calculating for each summit. Right from the off they are giving me summit time, schedule time and the difference. On the way to Binnein Beag I confide in them that I feel like I am losing minutes due to the wet conditions. This is not the dry grass that Adnan and I bounded down but wet, slippy and horrible with equally wet and slippy boulders hidden and still a shroud of cloud moved on by a swirling wind.  They take it in their stride and say "we'll check at the top". Turns out I'm up again, only a minute or so on this summit but it puts my mind at ease.

I am running to my schedule, based on my times and my running. I have worked hard for this to make sense per summit and have adjusted it to take account of the increasing tiredness I expected to feel at this point. It feels good, to know that I am running to the schedule, minutes are not being lost and I am able to maintain this speed. The wind and cloud are still about but diminish as daylight brings with it spectacular, if brief,  views. "I ran over all of them yesterday" I point to The Grey Corries.

On the way up Sgurr Eilde Mor I thought I had seen Ian arriving at the Loch below and expect to see him at various points but don't. I suspect he has called it a day. Binnein Mor is hard work and the first part of the climb to the ridge is very steep, but Dave reminds me that this bit's supposed to hurt. "Is this a segment?" Andy says. "I hope so", shouts down Dave from way up high ahead of us. It would be tempting to think that this is nearly done but leg 3 is at least progressing well.

As we come off Na Gruagaichean and head up the path towards the summit of Stob Coire A'Chairn I realise we should have started contouring earlier. Only a little earlier but it's a reminder that I still need to remain focused, this is my round and I am the one who knows the way. The wind has dropped completely now, perfect timing as I was worried about both the out and back ridges but they are taken in our stride.

The conversation is varied and entertaining and once again the team is working well as a pair. Dave leads and Andy is sat on my shoulder, shepherding me along and in my ear about eating, making me laugh and adding up the distance run and feet climbed. Along Devil's Ridge we can see figures below. Kate was to meet me by the lochan before Stob Ban with the rocket fuel I will need to finish - Coke, Iron Bru and Tangfastics.

11 hours in 11 minutes

On the way down to them I start to well up. I allow myself to think about finishing. I'm really going to do this. I check and I have maintained my 35 to 40 minute cushion all the way through this leg, never dipping below 30 minutes and never losing significant time per summit or feeling that I would be unable to continue. The cushion has allowed me to relax, OK maybe not relax but not obsess about summit times and splits and just concentrate on running.

With Kate are Ben, back for more, and Kieran, Ian's son. Kieran confirms what I suspected, Ian called it a day at Loch Eilde Mor.  "You're doing amazing" says Ben. "I'm going to do it aren't I?" It's more of a statement than a question but I have to voice it. Ben was worried we might have gone off too fast on leg one but is happy I've kept the gap through the night and I tuck in behind him, Kieran is good company and keeps darting off this way and that - he's like lightning!

I don't really stop at the lochen - Kate has walked up the climb and waited and I'm through in about 10 seconds. I feel bad but also know I can't stop now, I might not start again. My legs have two more climbs in them and I bully them to the top of Stob ban. "You know you've been out for a long run when there's two Stob Bans in it" says Ben and I laugh.

The final summit cairn is reached and I kiss it and look at my watch. I have an hour and a half to get down. On my schedule I have allowed an hour and five minutes, and that was taking it slowly.  I have reckoned without my legs though! They don't want to go downhill. At all. It's rocky, then grassy, then boggy and Andy is right - take it steady on this part, there's no point twisting an ankle now, and run in along the track to the finish.

I cry for most of the descent. Every time Andy tries to talk to me I well up, unable to speak. We get to the track and I ask for my vest. Ben paces me along the track to the finish. This will be the fastest of my three rounds if I maintain this pace. Kieran waits to direct Dave and Andy through the wood to the road. We seem to have lost them in the cut through the first section of trees. When I look at the trace later I see they have stuck to the track all the way along before turning back left again.

They catch up by the cattle grid and we arrive together at the Youth Hostel to a wonderful reception from friends and family.

23 hours and 40 minutes. It is my fastest but has also been the hardest. I paid more attention to the details and I had an amazingly strong team of pacers working as perfect pairs and a ground support team second to none. I trained to be strong enough to do it come what may weather wise and this is just as well. My schedule worked for me - it allowed me to get ahead of 24 hours and stay there. I think I under allowed for the effect of darkness, but not by much, and the buffer I had early on allowed me to be in control of this all the way round. It sounds so obvious but preparation is everything.

Thank you to my team. Each person involved was positive in outlook, practical in nature and totally committed to getting me round. Without them this would not have been possible for me. I still can't really comprehend that I am number 94 on the finishers list, one of only 10 so far this year and that this year is the first year completions have run in to double figures.

It also puts me at 44 on the Big 3 finishers list. That, to me, is unbelievable. 44! Just after Adnan, who I supported, and just before Jasmin who I followed in awe from afar.

I look at the names on those (short) lists and see race winners and fell champions. Giants of mountain running. I have raised myself to be among exalted company indeed. Not only that but I am also proud of the fact I have completed each round at the first attempt, with both the Paddy and the Ramsay run in testing conditions.

I started this journey because I thought that running was such a fundamental part of our history, of our evolution, that I wanted to know if I was capable of doing more. Could I reach further than I could grasp? I have my answer - yes I can; and in answering for myself I am convinced the answer is not just yes I can but yes we can. It just depends on how much you want to.

So what next? Coming down that last descent I wasn't sure I was ever running again. Later that day Sally said to me "I was talking to Ben's mum and dad and they did mountain marathons together - we could do that couldn't we?"

Sounds like a plan...

Big Round Overview

Mountains, mist and magic.

Amazing. Just Amazing.

 I have just been with Sally as she birthed Louis at home, with no pain relief, in a pool in our room. Her body has prepared for 9 months, her mind also. In a beautiful harmony she mixes raw emotion with natural highs, rises and falls down contractions, up one side, down the other. 

Amazing. Just Amazing.

What might I be capable of? Where are my limits? How might I find them?

A long distance triathlon follows, then an ironman. While training for the ironman I complete the lake district tough ones such as Helvellyn and Coniston Old Man. A light bulb goes off somewhere in my head. Mountain running, I didn't know, but once I knew how could I not know that mountain running is what I love to do?

August 12th, 2012 - The Bob Graham Round, 42 mountain tops, 66 miles, 28,500 feet of climb,  23 hours and 49 minutes. I found my moment at Pillar, down on 24 hours  with only one and a half legs to go I found what I was looking for. How to look deep inside yourself and push through the voices saying no, how to rise to the occasion and take control when all seems lost, how to endure.

August 26th, 2014 - UTMB, 105 miles, 28,500 feet of climb,  41 hours 14 minutes. What a race, I found myself again pushing on when all was lost. When I could not take another step, I took another and another. 

August 1st, 2015 - The Paddy Buckley Round, 47 mountain tops, 66 miles 28,500 feet of climb, 23 hours 48. I knew this was going to be harder than anything I had done previously. I joined a friend on a recce of his out of Ogwen after a few months out of the mountains. At the top of the first climb I realised that here was what I loved still, and a new challenge awaited. Recce after recce after recce. Morning training runs intensified and attention to detail was everything from weekly feet of climb to diet. I spent the last 9 hours of the round itself working out if I was going to do it and promising myself that this was so hard I would never do anything like it again. Within half an hour of finishing, in the car on the way back home, I resolved to complete the Charlie Ramsay Round.

August 14th, 2016 - The Charlie Ramsay Round, 24 Munro's, 56 miles, 28,500 feet of climb, 23 hours 40 minutes.  For this one I knew I had to raise my game again. Significantly. Further away, I knew I would get only a limited window of opportunity for success, organising a team would be difficult and weather conditions would need to be taken as they were. I needed to be strong enough to complete in all but conditions that would endanger others. An absolute conviction to the cause, to the finest detail over 7 months of planning and training after recovering from falling off my bike during the Three Peaks Cyclo Cross race in September and major shoulder ligament reconstruction surgery in November. I trained to be strong enough to complete in any conditions. Weekly track sessions now included to raise my slowest speed over longer distances. It was just as well as cloudy, wet and windy conditions prevailed for much of the 24 hours and I drew on the strength I had earned to complete. 

For the UK Big 3 each one I completed was harder than the one before, requiring better planning and more attention to detail. I completed each one at my first attempt and I will be on the list of Big 3 finishers at  number 44. That's an exclusive list of long distance fell runners. I am not a National Champion, I have won only one race in my short running career (Hardcastle 12 Hour endurance Race), I am Bingley Harriers Fell Champion 2016 and I do not figure at the sharp end of fell races.

But I love running. 

I am not a mountain runner, a fell runner, a cross country runner, a track runner, a fun runner, a racer or any other of the boxes that people who I know and don't know seem to love to put people in. 

But I love running.

I am a runner.

And if there's one thing I've learnt over the past few years it's that for me running, above anything and everything else I know, respects inputs with outputs.  What you put in you get back with bells on and the fun part is not the end event or race but finding out what works along the way. It's about finding the joy of the running you are doing in the moment you are doing it and letting it lift you up, a transformative process each and every time.

I am a runner.

Running, sort of!

Ramsay Countdown 2, 1, 0 - Oh Heck!

Where it all begins. 12 Midday - 12 midday.
Saturday 13th August to Sunday 14th August 2016

The drive up was great, done in two longish stints. We arrived in good spirits and set up camp.

It rained.

 Then it got windy and the awning blew off the van.

 I was woken by a man knocking on the door at about 7 o'clock holding one rope and the awning was like a kite flying off into the distance. All my things, carefully ordered and prepared strewn accross the floor getting wetter and wetter by the minute. Who knows how long they had been like that?

It was okay in the end, I tied the awning to the van and emptied it of everything essential. The winds are forecst to die down over the coming days. Starting today I hope.

I have somewhat obsessed about the weather. Even though there is little I can do about it apart from make the best of what's on offer.  It was starting to get me down a bit. Last minute nerves, doubts, reasons not to set off. A general feeling of being unsettled.

It's the same feeling I get before all of these long events but that doesn't seem to make it any easier to deal with. I know full well that tomorrow morning I will be ready to go, I have done the training, I am prepared and I do not go into the unknown.

At perhaps my lowest ebb I got a call from Ian, who I have been talking to about setting off together but assumed he was going to wait until later in the day because of the winds. He says he is now committed to going at midday with me. This lifts me no end. Even though this adds to things for me to think about suddenly I am bouyed and talking about the summits and the lines to take enthusiastically.

Even the wind has dropped to only very strong and the rain now is more of a drizzle than actual rain. That's practically a fine summer's day in Fort WIliam it seems, especially so this year. I have my tracker and can see myself as a blue arrow, I wonder about Sally watching the arrow move around the mountains and what she will see. Will it be moving on schedule? How long will I have to stop for? What unexpected events will happen that will have to be overcome? Or will it smoothly fly round, gliding effortlessly over the mountain tops - floating, if you will, on the wispy mountain clouds?

Hmmm

Well that's it for the countdown, tomorrow morning will be spent getting dressed (no really, it takes a bit of time for me to get everything just right to set off!) and final sorting of bags for people to pick up, drop off, take up mountains and leave in the van. No more countdown, no more training, no more worrying - just me, the mountains and some like minded people going for a long day out. I can't think of anyting I'd rather do.

The tracker link is  https://share.delorme.com/ramsays130816

A report will follow come what may, one final post to bring it all to a close, to complete this journey we have been on together. Until then, farewell.

Ramsay Countdown 3 - Of Lists and Ravens

Lists...

I'm a bit of a newcomer to lists. I discovered them in my late 30's and now I wonder what I ever did without them! At the moment I have a notebook for work and one for running. Actually that's not true, I have a selection for work and a selection for running. I write in them, making lists primarily.

It's not that I then need to return to them but it does help clear my mind of all the information that's swimming around and trying to make a nuisance of itself. I remember when I started training as a teacher we did an exercise which was basically answering some questions and then doing a short calculation. You then had to try and remember what the previous questions were. I couldn't remember a single one and was primed for the news that I was going to have to work harder.

Rather unexpectedly it turned out that the less you could remember the more efficient your brain was because it didn't hold on to information that it didn't need. I was chuffed, needless to say. The trouble is it's no good having an efficient processor if you can't remember what you are processing a few seconds later. This is where lists have been a revelation for me. I can process the information and let it sit on a list while that happens and then I can document what I've done so when someone asks me I can tell them. 

It's wonderfully liberating as well being able to put something down on paper and then forget about it until it needs resolving, often the need to resolve it has disappeared by the time you come to make any decisions. So I am surrounded by lists. I'm resisting the temptation to adjust and fine tune the ideas down on them. Some are functional, some are speculative, some are a record of information that is current at the time of writing and some are nonsense.

In and amongst there might be the odd comment or doodle, or a memory that stands out. The doodle of the rocks and the raven are from my recce along the Grey Corries. It was an impressive bird, I mean it was larger and had a deeper voice than any raven I have heard before. I half expected Thorin and Bilbo to emerge from the mist and tell me about how the ancient Ravens were friends to the Dwarves and used to be able to speak to them, a skill that is all but lost today. But they didn't. It did look majestic and it was definitely talking to someone though. Maybe it was me.

and lists...

Ramsay Countdown 4 - That's it then!

Last track session, last hill rep, last run out.

Steady. Well steady for 400's anyway, if I'm going that fast on Saturday someone slow me down!

Feeling strange. Pretty much like I always do the few days before a round. 7 months of building, of using shorter races to check fitness, check kit, adjust pacing and feeding strategies. 3 months of early starts and hill reps, weekly mileage checks, feet of climb increasing gradually then dropping only to increase again, and again.

Support runs, long runs out in The Lakes, Wales and Scotland. Days out, nights out, wind, rain, hail, snow, sunshine, drizzle, mist, lost and found.

All done. Banked. Ready to be called upon.

Time to gather it all inwards. Focus it all. Be ready to access it all, to draw on what I have done before, of what I know I can do when backed in to a corner. Some bits will be needed, some saved for another day. Time to focus for short periods but still keep a relaxed focus for a long time, of perspective.

Ready for the highs and lows. The tears. The breakdown of everything and the rebuilding of it along the way.

I will be different. I will be the same.

Last track session, last hill rep, last run out.

Bring. It. On.

Ramsay Countdown 5 - Markers

Kites - brilliant!

All the advice is that you should now be feeling like you need to have one last blast in order to feel stronger, one last long run in order to put your mind at rest - and the trick is to resist this. My trick for resisting this is to visit my training hill one last time.

The Ellers - a 1.3 mile hill with 784 feet of climb. I've set it as a segment because this is the hill I run up twice a day when I'm training for these long rounds. It's about a ten minute run there, it varies up to about twenty minutes uphill, ten minutes jog down and then ten minutes home.

Last year it got to  about 4 weeks before my Paddy and I decided to see what pushing the pace on the climb would lead to - at this point I was run/walking up in about 18 minutes. I managed 13 something and the record for the segment, a segment that I had created to help monitor my consistency up the hill, was 12:13. At that point I told myself that if I wanted to complete the Paddy I should try for the record the week before as a last, short, hard effort.

Running against the clock is a funny thing. Whether it's 24 hours or 12 minutes it gets inside your head. Your body responds differently. Where you might back off you push on, where you might think that's enough you decide it's just the beginning.  Last year I duly claimed the record in 11:49 and was chuffed to bits. A segment I had created and now had the record on as well.

So to this year. How to gauge how the training has gone this close to the Ramsay attempt. I'll try and beat my own record, which still stands. I think that's partly because it's tucked away and partly beacause who would really want to run that hard up this hill! I look at my previous attempts and notice my average time is coming down from an initial twenty minutes to closer to seventeen. A good sign. I also note that Strava has me having run up this hill 154 times.  I laugh a little at this, particularly as I didn't use Strava for a long while.

So I run there at a faster tempo than usual, a warm up if you will, and my legs are feeling good. I set off at a slightly harder pace than I think is sustainable but manage to keep going owards and upwards. At half way Ithink I've got this in the bag but then it kicks again and I remember now that last year I had started slow and then finished strongly so I will have a race on my hands to the top. I get a little faster without truly getting into the red. As the seconds tick over I stop my lap timer.

It looks like I have done it by a few seconds but I am reluctant to be sure until it is downloaded and verified. I run home to see that I have beaten my record by 6 seconds. I am curiously both pleased and disappointed.

 I'm never really happy it seems.

 I'm pleased I've beaten my record and lowered it to closer to 11:30 than 12:00, which I like. But I thought I was further ahead at halfway and wanted it to be a lot clearer that I was ahead of where I was this time last year.

And that's one of the markers I have been looking for. A marker as to how my training has gone. It's a small one, but on reflection last year I was really out on a limb thinking I could maybe set the record and this year I was slightly disappointed with the margin of gain, so that's a step in the right direction - I think!

My Paddy started with 4 hours of strong winds and horzontal rain, it briefly broke for leg two and three hours of glorious running but then deteriorated through the long leg until I was battered back into my full wet weather gear again. It did ease off then but I am beginning to realise just how much those early battles with the weather must have taken out of me and using this to feed my motivation and confidence going in to what is generally accepted as the harder of the Big 3 rounds. My Bob Graham was run in 23:49 and the Paddy in 23:48 but in significantly worse conditions. If I am at about the same, or slightly ahead of my, fitness as at this time last year then that bodes well. The game is truly afoot.

Another marker is getting grumpy with my family during the taper. To counteract this today I took Louis and Rupert out to fly a kite. To be honest afternoons don't get much better than this. Just as important as the physical build up now is the mental one. Positive images, thoughts and experiences will all count. For a start I've several hours of small talk to fill with people I know to varying degrees. I'm not much good at small talk at the best of times and to be honest that could be one of the hardest parts of the challenge!

Now if I can just work out an anecdote from this afternoon...
 

Ramsay Countdown 8,7,6 - Sca Fell Pike, Bare Feet and Nut Bombs for Breakfast!

Louis following with a full pack.

Where does the time go?

Just got back from Borrowdale, not running but supporting, and it has been a couple of days without WiFi or reception good enough for data. Lovely.

Sally has completed her challenge to walk/run the three highest mountains in the UK by summitting Sca Fell Pike. We set off together as a family and walked up to Styhead Tarn. Great fun, and after telling Sally that we were on the path, I was reading the map after all, we got to some crags to scramble across. No mean feat with a three year old and a six year old. As we rose past the waterfall it was clear that the main path was in fact on the other side of the river! Not sure I'll live that one down after showing Sally how to read a map lol.

Sally on Sca Fell Pike Summit.

Sally went on to summit on her own while we waited at the stretcher box for the runners to come through. It got windier and colder so we watched the first few, gave out some haribos and water, then headed back down via the main path. One person commented that we had see the first 3 ladies through and tried to engage Louis in a conversation on this. Louis was a bit non-plussed and so was I until I realised he must have thought that, what with Louis and Rupert having long hair, they must be girls. It's interesting the assumptions we make.

On the way up Rupert had got his shoes wet, as of course we all did, and he asked if he could take them off. He then proceeded to walk most of the 2.5 miles up to the tarn barefoot. I can't deny I was envious of the freedom and the extra experiences he was getting from the surrounding hills. "I'm going to walk on that one because it will be warm", "When you walk on these ones it tickles". These are just a couple of examples of things he was saying walking up - it chimes with the book I am reading - Footnotes - about why we run and how it makes us human. I think after my round I might well join him for a few lake district barefoot walks. It says in the Bob Graham handbook that Bob Graham himself reccied the tops barefoot, saving his pumps for the big day itself. 

Rupert climbing barefoot while I look on enviously!

Nutbombs - bought in the morning before the Borrowdale race, made by a lovely couple and made of peanut butter, coconut, cherry, dark chocolate and various combinations of these and other ingredients. Great for getting up mountains, and down mountains. Just the right blend of sweetness and savoury so you can go on eating them. And when you wake up in the morning and the first question from the littlest is "Have you got any of those round things" you know they've gone down well!

Nut Bomb

Time - 24 hours is a long time to run. The last 3 days have flown by. When I left we were surely going to lose the 5 day Test Match against Pakistan, it was clear after the best part of 2 days we were well behind. A match I have just listened to the finish of with England winning - brilliant! Could not have timed that better. Sally was faster up and down Sca Fell Pike than I imagined she would be and the Borrowdale Fell Race winners took less time than I can comprehend to finish the race.

 Douglas Admas wrote that "Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so" in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The character who says it is Ford Prefect and he is from another planet so has a different perspective on pretty much anything and everything he comes across on planet Earth. His companion through the book is Arthur Dent who wanders around aimlessly, in his dressing gown, looking for cups of tea and trying to make sense of it all. 

There was a point here somewhere but I'm not sure if it's that I feel a bit like Arthur Dent at the moment wandering around while trying to make sense of things or that I'm wondering if time on Saturday will be an illusion and bend and stretch to suit my purposes and give me 5 days worth of a Test Match but compressed into a lunch time. 

Only time will tell.

Ramsay Countdown 9 - Details

Tracker - invaluable.

Details.

This is the time, just before it becomes last minute, where the details come together.

The schedule, changes, on the ground logistics and contingency plans usually start to take a more solid shape and the actual plan falls in to place. Conversations start taking place that reveal gaps in the plan, misplaced information or possible alternative scenarios to consider that until this point have been consigned to the 'to deal with later' pile.

There's a lot to consider, not least the fact that a team of people are organising their lives around a day in your life. Some have taken time off work, travelled great distances and committed to working for me through the night. Some are family, some are friends, some I have met once and some not at all. In the middle of this I am putting people in touch with people to arrange between themselves, guiding the overall plan and trying to make sure everyone is happy (or at least not unhappy) with their lot.

The details matter. For my Bob Graham I had clothes in bags and I knew what was where and what was needed by who. Not much use if I'm incoherent and asking for "that coat, you know the one?". Lesson learnt and for the Paddy I was somewhat over organised! I had a kit list matched to labelled bags that included a stationery section - well you never know when you might need a ruler or a calculator do you?

This time at least there are only two support points, although I have engineered another near the end after seeing it work on another round. I need to prepare the spare clothes I might need which will to some extent be dependent on the weather. But only to some extent, I can probably tell you now what I will be wearing for each leg and what I am likely to have spare in case the temperature drops!

There will be food bags for the pacers to carry, 2x water bottles, small bottles of sugary drinks (usually coke but maybe iron bru as well this time) and a drybag of additional clothes, depending on what I've got on. Add to this the food for the support team to have ready for me - on this occasion I think I'm going for coffee, beans and a cornish/sausage roll + brown sauce. Then also the food for the pacers for when they have finished plus any spare layers that might be needed if it's been particularly wet/cold.

Then there's the waiting around - there's really not much I can do about that part apart from stick to the schedule, which to be honest I'm trying to run faster than! To this end I will be carrying a tracker so people can, well, track me and make an informed decision about when to set off for the different points. I'm using Cover My Tracks, based in Fort William, which also gives my family the reassurance that if I do get in to trouble (although trouble is not on the schedule!) then I have a way of sending a message in an emergency that does not rely on mobile phone coverage.
I've watched other people's trackers and it quietly sucks you in. So if you can't sleep, log on and tune in - you can imagine the details playing out in front of you while I move around the mountains.

Details - they are important but also if something isn't quite right? Crack on.

Obsessive? Me?

Ramsay Countdown 10 - Tapering

10 days to go.

Counting down from 10 is like a proper countdown, who starts from 21?

10 days where all I can do is mess things up! There's no more fitness gains to be made, no training that I can do now that will have any difference on the outcome.

That's it. Done. Dusted.

Now I need to make sure I arrive at the start line rested, refreshed and ready to rock.

This magic art that is called tapering.

But how do you taper for something that's going to take everything you've got and then a bit more? I've looked back at what's worked for me previously and for my Bob Graham I spent the week before camping on my own with Maria and Louis so lots of activities but no actual running or cycling as such. I think I got round that day by being too stubborn (I mean driven) to admit defeat when I thought I was behind schedule and when I was actually behind schedule. Bloody mindedness can get you a long way it seems!

For my Paddy Buckley I've looked back at my Strava and although in my head I thought I had taken it easy for two weeks it appears not. I went all out in a race the week before, only a 10k race but it was hilly and I was going pretty close to flat out, and I also kept up my hill repeats until this point as well. Something that I dropped this year last week.

Today I went out for a gentle bike ride that ended up being 42 miles. Probably get away with that. I didn't push too hard and it was nice to keep ticking over with a couple of hard efforts along the way.

 Tomorrow I am booked in for a sports massage to unlock the feeling I have in my legs and running frame. I think the cumulative effect of all the training means I need relaxing. At least I think that's what I need.

Who knows? And that's more or less where I'm at. Nobody knows. All the books, coaches, internet chats and sports blogs point to one thing. Nobody really knows. Even looking back with hindsight is only partly useful because when you replicate something that worked previously there's no guarantee it will work this time. Tapering is not only an individual thing it's also different for each event and for each particular set of circumstances related to the run up to each event. And for each person.

Reading between the lines it seems very likely that tapering is a made up idea designed to make people worry about the days leading up to an event! I think I could go so far as to say that as long as you believe you've had the perfect taper then that should be fine.

So I shall continue to run short distances daily, maybe. Unless I don't feel like it in which case I shall have a day off. My hands and feet are tingling due to the mileage drop which I know is a good sign. I liken it to feeling like being wound up slowly so that at the point of the event I let it all go. What I mustn't do is treat any of the coming days as training - there is a danger I could go too far and too hard and not leave enough time for recovery before the big day. But then again who's to say that might not be what I need?

So that's tapering cleared up - I hope you're all the wiser for it.

Ramsay Countdown 11 - Inspiration

3 Peaks Training

Inspiration

It comes in many forms.

 I started on this running journey because I was with Sally as she birthed Louis in to the world in our downstairs room. In a pool. With no pain killers. It made me think, about lots of things. This was significantly different not only to how birth is represented in the media but also my own previous experience of birth and a hospital environment. It made me think.

I wondered what I might be capable of if Sally and her body mind could do this?
I wondered how much of what I was able to do was being underused?
I wondered if I could achieve great things, amazing things even, with the right application?

Inspiration

Alpe D'Huez long distance Tri, then an ironman. I was searching for my limits, not found them yet. Then a chance read of Born to Run - this coincided with me finding mountains to run in. Sally remembers me telling her wide eyed that I had heard of people who go running in the mountains with head torches, imagine!

My first Bob Graham recce will stay with me forever. Meeting up with two complete strangers and spending 8 hours running through snow capped mountains into darkness. A sunset unrivalled in my expereiences before or after, a magical scene of light and dark, of reds, yellows and oranges refelected, refined, constantly moving and it totally blew me away. I'm still chasing a sunset like it but if I never find one I have at least this one to call my own.

I remember Sally saying to me that her dad had commented  - either he'll think it's the hardest thing he's ever done or you'll have lost him! I think a bit of both but I would say that Sally and I have gained rather than lost anything in the process.

Inspiration

I've supported others for all three rounds, I've witnessed great feats of mental and physical strength. Of having the will to endure when there is nothing left, only to discover there is more left in there after all.

I'm supporting Sally in her attempt to run the Yorkshire Three Peaks and in the process seen her run up both Snowden and Ben Nevis and fix her sights firmly on Scafell Pike. From a standing start less than 12 weeks ago. Amazing.

Inspiration

Going to work with an amazing staff who give their all, day in, day out to provide for the children in their care. People willing to go the extra mile, not because they have to but because they want to. Because it matters. In spite of everything. It matters.

Inspiration

My friend and occasional running partner who summitted Everest. He dropped me on his winter Bob Graham going up Blencathra when I was supporting but still waited instead of running off in to the dark and snow - forcing me to raise my game on the comeback from injury and finish with him on schedule.

My friend who I supported on the Ramsay and the Paddy through hours of uncertainty and doubt (for him) knowing that I just needed to show the way and keep putting food in.


Inspiration

I like the quote below from Heile Gebrselassie - it starts with action, through belief and back in to action again. There are so many ways to be inspired by so many people for so many reasons but without doing anything about it that counts for nothing.

Look after yourself. Look after the details. Aim high, aim for further than you think is possible. Dream, and if you're going to dream - dream big.

Ramsay Countdown 12 - One Year On

One Year On

A round, around, together, alone,

12 minutes to spare, relief then home,

A journey taken, just because,

Mountain's  climbed, all doubts lost,

A quick sojourn, three peaks by bike,

To crash and fall, the longest night,

Rebuild and wait, to wait and see,

Not completely human, bionic me,

Run hard, run high, run fast, run slow,

Round in circles, sunshine, snow,

Faster, stronger, than before,

Mending, running, more, more, more,

Building, peaking, climb, climb, climb,

Mountain running friends do fine,

Twitching, waiting, planning, home,

A round, around, together, alone.

Ramsay Countdown 13 - Sunday things

 Early morning run, bright sunshine, walking with Louis + Rupert + Maria, cafe stop, adventures, Pokemon Go not really understood,  party missed (shh they didn't notice, sorry I forgot about it!), plants tended, garden wrecked, garden sorted, man vs food burgers served, sibling battles, evening sunshine dancing, planning taking firmer shape, pingu, stories, peace.

Cow and Calf rocks

Ramsay Countdown 14 - Fun holiday stuff

Takes me back

I went for a short run this morning with Sally, it felt a lot better than yesterday and in bright morning sunshine with blue skies - lovely.

Then to my parent's house where Louis shared his pictures with my dad and Rupert was Rupert and in to everything. Out came the badminton set and happy memories for me of playing in the garden with my mum. This is what led to me representing Yorkshire and even an England team as a junior, lots of hard work by all concerned but very good fun and happy memories.

Happy and hard working, not a bad combination and one I'm hoping will take me all the way round. I've surrounded myself with a fantastic team - positive, experienced, motivated and up for the challenge.

I've also got out some reading, old and new, to get my mind in the right place.

A Day to Die For is the second Everest book of the holiday from my father in law, I have an increasing respect and fascination with the process and mindset of Everest climbers.

Beyond the Marathon is a great recount of one man's attempt to complete The Grand Slam of American trail running - taking on 4 of the toughest 100 mile trail races in the space of 14 weeks, I've read this before but I'm coming back to it.

Footnotes is new and about, well it's about running but I've not read it yet so can only comment that it's started well and has covered and expanded on thoughts brought to my attention when I read Born to Run - and that's after only a couple of chapters so I'm hopeful it will continue in this vein.

Now I'm off to scare the minions senseless with Jurassic World - it's a 12  certificate but how scary can it really be? :-)

Holiday Reading

Ramsay Countdown - 15 days to go

Schedule

Finish schedule, tidy, wash up, vacuum, finish book, play with children, sort out children, ignore children, get cross with children,  marvel at children, catch train, eat out,  shop for stories, walk in the rain, catch train, make tea, go for a short run, realise how tired you are, drop off children, go out to surprise dinner party, drive home, fall into bed, zzzzzz

And sleep...

Ramsay Countdown 16 - Let The Madness Commence!

Schedule

One day. That's all it's been since I got back from Scotland.  One day.

Already I'm climbing the walls. This is where I must, must, must concentrate on not eating everything in sight. Mileage will drop now, as will feet of climb. I'm going to book a leg massage, go cycling, swimming, gentle loops running and a couple of short, sharp track sessions. But nothing that would warrant eating like I'm still running 50+ miles a week.

  It's only two weeks, it's only two weeks.

First on my list of things to do is contact the support and get my schedule in order. I'm enlisting the help of my daughter, shouting questions about how to add people and contact them through Facebook.  It is straight forward enough,  when you know how! I'm blown away by the support I have, the enthusiasm and the commitment of family, friends and strangers.  I have supported others and know how it feels to be part of the team, it's something you can't put in to words easily and perhaps that's how it should be. A common purpose shared by like minded people, something to aim for together that can not be achieved either alone or without preparation and even then that's only to get to the start.

So my next task is the schedule. I get out my recce times, a sample plan from the Internet (that has one summit missing and some questionable timings to say the least) and a couple of plans from other people (not Jasmine Paris though, breathe a sigh of relief support runners!)

First off I take the longest time scheduled on each plan and my notes for each summit and this gives me  24:35 - not really what I was looking for!
I adjust it where I can see obvious differences to my own times and get the far more reasonable 23:59. At this point it is perhaps worth pointing out that on my Paddy Buckley my first plan was for 23:49 and I finished in 23:48, albeit in shocking conditions.

I think the 23:59 plan will suit my purposes well. There is some give in it and scope for me to get ahead without pushing too hard and I think I can go under this given how I am feeling and the preparation I have had - this has worked as a strategy well for me previously and also it will be very easy to work out if I am ahead or behind 24 hours without having to do any tricky maths!

It's also only a minute longer than the time that Charlie Ramsay himself did the first time the round was completed.

Cutting it fine?

Ramsay Countdown 17 - The Grey Corries

3 days of running 

Another day, another loop. This time the 4 summits left for me to visit, logistically I will miss out parts of two descents but I can live with that.

The day started clear and on every summit not only was I up on schedule time but I also had views! I started from Glen Nevis car park, up to Steall Falls then up and left to the first of the 4 I had left. From there it's ridge running finishing with a climb from a tarn up Stob Ban. Instead of descending on the Ramsay route I went the opposite way down the flattening top towards the river and where Nevis Water begins.

It was there I saw a herd (30+) of deer swarming,  jumping and generally running about next to the river far below.  As I descended alongside them they sped off into the distance.  Apart from 3, who stayed and were definitely watching me. I slowed down and checked my memory for things I know about deer. Not much. I know they get hunted, lots of other things I can think of that get hunted are dangerous.  I slow down a bit more. Given that I don't really like crossing a field with cows in, and don't get me started about horses, I don't really want a herd of deer heading my way at speed. I slow down a bit more and fall over for good measure. At this the deer decide to head off after the herd at speed and they leave a deer trail for me to follow to find the path, I catch a glimpse of them in the distance.

Then it rains. I eat the last of my food and pick up the pace for a strong finish to the van. I arrive grinning and know the hard yards are now done, time to head home, look after myself and sort the logistics.

The end - The beginning 

Ramsay Countdown 18 - The Fersit Five

The Fersit Five

Stob Choire  Sgriodain  80   (75)

Chno Dearg                      40   (36)

Beinn Na Lap                   75    (80)

Railway Bridge                        (30)

River Bridge                            (30)

Stob Choire Easain        60    (-)

Stob Choire Mheadhior 23  (18)

Loch Treig                        50   (52)

1 hour 20 climbing. I should have realised before I set off that this was going to be hard - not down from one summit and up to the next. Actually 1 hour 20 of climbing. Mist, rain, summit? Wind, rain, summit? Mist, rain, wind, summit? Faffing about, double checking, going wrong, tired legs, summit? Yes, and amazingly I'm 5 minutes ahead of schedule time. 

Chno Dearg doesn't seem to be appearing and time is ticking down. Then I'm there and brace myself for the worst - 4 minutes up this time, surprised is something of an understatement!

Now my trace has me down a nearly nearly vertical semi-scree run and the map has me following the ridge. The map is marked up for anti-clockwise and I'm going clockwise so scree it is.

Frogs under feet, deer running next to me - brilliant! So brilliant that I forget to check where I'm actually going and go wrong again, never mind. Rather today than on the day itself. River crossed now up and right. Summit? Up and right. Summit? Up and right. Summit? Wind, rain, mist, up and right. Summit? At the actual summit there is a cairn with a walled wind break. I sit down out of the wind and do a systems check. I haven't eaten for over an hour and im cold, which is probably why I want to cry and have lost 5 minutes. How many times will I need to learn this lesson? 

Down to the bridge and lunch and an extra top, much better and now I'm off the clock this next section is amazing. This is what mountains and valleys look like when you dream of them (everybody dreams of mountains right?). 

Now to Stob Coire Easain, Adnan calls this the assassin and now I can see why, relentless and killing my spirit dead.

Stob Choire Mheadhior is great, down and up, lovely, tick. I have a quick chat (3 minutes, yes I did time it lol) with a man and his dog, the only person I have seen today, and that perks me up no end. I bound down the descent. I stop bounding for the technical bits. And the boggy bits. And the rocky bits. And the long grassy sections with hidden rocks. I emerge over a rise expecting to be near the bottom, now I've heard of false summits but false bottoms?

I arrive back at the van - 23 miles, 7,700 feet of climb, 7 1/2 hours.

Lessons learned: leg 2 is hard.

Lessons learned again: eat regularly, if you're cold put another top on.

 Only 4 summits left to recce now - The Grey Corrie's.  I'm going to try and work out how to do them so I can fit them in tomorrow and still get back home in good time.

Before

After