As I mentioned previously, the responses from the article had died down, and I thought I was back to square one, and still looking for a team-mate. However....

... In the eleventh hour I was saved.

Apparently people frequently discard their finished newspapers on the train, and conveniently the trains are often not wholly purged of these self same papers. In this way an old copy of a local paper can circulate through many readers and many train lines, and eventually end up in the hands of exactly the right person.

This is how James Davers and I came to meet.

James emailed me after reading my article in an old paper, with a tentative hope of a place on the team, and near certainty that all vacancies were filled. His email seemed to say just the right thing, so I hastily arranged to meet him at the nearest restaurant in the hopes that he was indeed someone I could trust with my life and sanity on the ice.

We immediately hit it off. He has a cheeky, slightly self-deprecating sense of humour that is really amusing. Couple that with his love of the outdoors, and an easiness with both company and solitude, I was sold.

I suspect he has some skills as a Jedi ... I explained to him, in soul numbingly boring detail (something I'll duplicate at a later stage on this blog), the strict diet I was observing at the time for the sake of my health. On the disclosure of my no dairy, no wheat, no sugar, no tomatoes, no meat and no alcohol restrictions, I found myself somewhat surprised to be shoveling my way through a delicious lasagna all on James' cunning recommendation.

Hopefully his evil mind-control will be put to good use in psyching out the competition.

One speedy registration later and we got going with our plan of attack. James pitched up at the next meeting armed to the teeth with maps of training walks and calculations of average walking speeds over different terrains and conditions. It was so gratifying to have someone else actually bring ideas and research to the table, rather than just expect instruction. Which is how a team should behave.

Over the course of the meeting we discussed charities, logos, training, strategy and sponsorship. He happily told me that he was the kind of guy who would pack and repack his gear until he knew that all was accounted for and in its proper place. Then he would walk until he reached his target, no matter what.

All that's left for me to do is feel smug with my choice of new team-mate. After all, how can we not succeed with such a serving and driven attitude!