Donnie Campbell - Mountain running

Donnie Campbell is a mountain endurance athlete from Scotland (also a running coach - GetActiveRunning.com) who is sponsored by Salomon and other brands such as Suunto. A former Royal Marine Commando, Donnie was once Scotland’s Munro Round Record Holder, after running 833 miles and climbing 126,143m to summit all 282 Munros in 2020 in a blistering time of 31 days, 23 hours and 02 minutes, which included cycling and kayaking between the hills. Just one of a number of Donnie’s long-distance running achievements, it’s Donnie’s Munro Round (plus his completion of the 90-km/8,500m ascent of Charlie Ramsay’s Round in Winter) that impresses me most. A Scottish hillwalker for many years, I can easily relate to the playground Donnie was operating within but rather than what I expected that experience might give me, which is an appreciation of the mental toughness and physical strength it required to achieve it, I found it did nothing greater than make me gape at the size of the gulf that’s between us. Donnie’s endurance endeavours in the mountains have however encouraged me to expand my own horizons, such as teaching myself how to move more efficiently over longer distances in my local Pentland Hills, increasing the number of Munros I can summit in a single day (the most at present being 11) and been a major influence on what’s proving to be my long-term passion project outside of photography, attempting Philip Tranter’s Round.