A Munro Miracle

In gruelling conditions and with minimal sleep, Jamie Aarons's mammoth month-long Munro round has entered the record books

- FIONA RUSSELL

ULTRA-RUNNER Jamie Aarons has set an astonishing new world record of just 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes for the fastest compleation of all 282 Munros in Scotland.

Jamie started the challenge on Ben More, Isle of Mull, on May 26 and finished on Ben Klibreck, Sutherland, on June 26. Her extraordinary round was non-stop and self-propelled, which means she ran each mountain and cycled or kayaked in between.

The 43-year-old social worker from Stirlingshire broke Donnie Campbell's 2020 record by 13 hours and 5 minutes.

Jamie said, "It has been my toughest and most ambitious challenge yet. It was also a challenge with the most uncontrollable variables.

"So many things could have gone wrong but I planned for two years beforehand to control as many of these variables as possible.

"While it was never about beating a record, I'm very happy to have done so. My aim was to do the best I could and go as fast as I could, which meant setting a schedule that was ambitious.

"It was very tough and my feet have been extremely sore at times but at no point did I think about stopping."

A Munro is a Scottish mountain with a height of more than 3,000 feet (914.4 metres).

They are geographically spread across Scotland's mainland and on the islands of Mull and Skye.

During her Munro round, Jamie ran 1,315km (817 miles), cycled 1,249km (776 miles) and kayaked 11.5km (7 miles) across lochs and the sea. Her total ascent was 135,366m (444,114ft), which is equivalent to more than 15 times the height of Mount Everest.

Jamie journeyed widely across Scotland, reaching the most southerly Munro of Ben Lomond in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park on the morning of May 31. She bagged the most easterly Munro, Mount Keen in Angus, just after midnight on June 8 and the most westerly Munro, Sgurr na Banachdich on Skye, on June 16. The most northerly Munro, Ben Hope, was Jamie's penultimate.