I was aware of fell-running/racing prior to reading Feet in The Clouds. I remember witnessing the finish of the Welsh 1000m one sweltering saturday in the early 2000's on the summit of Snowdon. The bedraggled state of the finishers really impressed me.

I also recall passing two fellrunners coming down Skiddaw one year between xmas and new year, and thinking they were hard as nails... it was something like -13 that day.

But it was reading FITC that gave me some proper background to what it was all about, the races etc.

Having said that, i must have first read FITC in possibly 2007/8, but although the seed was there in my head, i didn't get into fellrunning until 2015...

One day i walked out of my kickboxing gym, about a month after my last fight, and thought i don't really want to do this any more, i'm going to do what i've always wanted and try fellracing... within 6 weeks i was on the start line at Bamford Sheepdog Trials.