Year 2 medical student Tom details his experience climbing Arthur’s Seat 276 times in 2023 alone.
My name is Tom Cadden, I am a second-year medical student. When I started studying last year, I had to move across to Edinburgh from Glasgow. It would be fair to say that as a mature student, I struggled to make any meaningful friendships and so had to find other things to do in my spare time. I was also quite overweight.
I found myself just going out and walking round the city, venturing up the Crags one day and thought ‘I’d better go up Arthur’s Seat one day’ but put it off for months, as the motivation to do such a thing seemed pretty daunting. Anyway, a day came in November when I had no more excuses, so up I went.
When I got to the shoulder near the summit, I had to stop as I could feel angina in my chest and was genuinely concerned that I had pushed myself too far. I gathered myself and went for the final push to the top and got there, out of breath and still worried about my heart, but the freedom of getting to the summit was a massive weight off my shoulders.
Upon coming down, I did some searching to see about walking groups that may go up and found a group of fellows that went up regularly on a Tuesday and Thursday morning. By the end of the year, I was going up a couple of times a week.
New Year’s day 2023 came and I went up at 8am into a dense mist. You couldn’t see more than five metres in front of you, but on the way down I decided to set myself a target of going up 100 times for the year. That’s only twice a week and I can do that. However, one day I went up twice in that day and I realised I had to change my target. This was in April, and I set the target of 250 summits by the end of the year.
Naturally, I then hit a two week period of having the flu, followed with exams and a week away to walk the West Highland Way. Suddenly it was July and 250 summits seemed like I had set myself to high a mark, but I just got stuck in, going up between six to nine times a week all through the summer. I even had a day when I went up six times!
All of a sudden, the 250 target was in touching distance, and it was only November. I smashed through it one Tuesday morning before uni and thought back to when this challenge had started, what was the aim? Why had I put myself through this? What had I achieved?
Well, it helped me lose one and a half stone for starters. I had battled through some really tough mental health issues (the usual imposter syndrome, financial worries and the worst of all ‘why on earth would a 38 year old decide to do a six year medical degree with no experience in the field?!’) and I had met some good friends along the way. I started to do some running, both on and off road and while I haven’t set myself as crazy targets, I did the Edinburgh Winter 5k earlier this year – something I could never envisage myself doing previously. I feel more alive and fit than I have been since I was a teenager and most importantly my mental health is certainly much improved.
My final tally for the year worked out at 276 summits for 2023 and I still go up regularly, though not nearly as much as previous. It has been a wonderful journey and one I could not recommend enough. The freedom of getting up there each time, finding new routes, running down when the weather permitted, gaining confidence in your ability, battling through the mental and physical barriers.
I honestly think the determination and energy gained from doing it made a huge impact on my final exam performance at the end of first year too – here’s hoping it does the same this year.
