ALEX Salmond bursts into the single quiet room within the SNP's whirring headquarters, pulls off his tie, and flops into a window seat with the look of a runner coming off an exercise rush, tired yet strangely euphoric.
It's been marathon after marathon for more than two years, and it's still not over, yet he seems bright, chipper and remarkably confident.
What has he learned entering the last leg?
"Oh, the country has changed. The mood of optimism, confidence, participation, engagement. Somebody should write a thesis some time about what this is doing to the health of the nation. I've never seen more optimistic, happier people -in places where people are often neither optimistic or happy - in my life.
Oh they did - it was called operation "they're too stupid to think for themselves so we'll walk it". Even if it's a no they have ****ed up big time.
