I am posting a daily quote in 2018, celebrating the brilliance, toughness and eccentricity of hill and fell running. The messages are posted each morning on Twitter at @MuirJonny.

These are the quotes from the first week.

Day 1: A rousing start to 2018 from @boffwhalley: ‘I found my feet again, tripping easily across loose rock 3,000 feet high, feeling closer to sky than sea. This body wasn’t stretching and pulling any more, it was singing its place on earth. Look at me, Ma! On top of the world!’

Day 2: @moireosullivan epitomises grit as she attempts the Wicklow Round: ‘My body is crying surrender, my mind is pleading clemency, but somehow, somewhere an inner spirit keeps fighting and telling me to soldier on.’

Day 3: Prolific Scottish hill racer Alan Smith tells it like it is: ‘I can’t get roads into my head.’

Day 4: One of the ways ‘you know you’re a hill runner’, according to @El_CapitanoCVFR: ‘You’ve urinated against more trees than a Jack Russell and had more open-air dumps than Bear Grylls.’ You know you’re a fell runner when…

Day 5: @Al_Humphreys runs and ruminates: ‘Running has at different times and in different ways provided an alternative for many things in my life: for alcohol, for dancing, sex, brainstorming, meditation, counselling, religion, confession, even adventure.’ Why I Run

Day 6: @thepianorunner explains why hill running is her perfect ‘fit’: ‘I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be. There are no feelings of discomfort, no seeds of doubt or worry – only wholeness, happiness.’ The Piano Runner

Day 7: On the first timed ascent of Ben Nevis (1895): ‘Strength of muscle and physical endurance are qualities which seldom fail to call forth admiration; but when employed in foolhardy and dangerous exploits, their possessor is surely acting in opposition to the laws of nature.’

Follow the tweets at @MuirJonny.