Steve and Derek, the Jolly Boys, kings of sexy running, walking hills and searching out portaloos along with Jill, the real runner of our little trio of JSM amigos have taken on the challenge of running the Loch Ness Marathon in aid of CHAS.

So how did we get here, well it all started in the pub…….

No no not the marathon planning, we need to go further back than that.

A few years ago on an annual Christmas trip to Jocks in Oldmeldrum, my crazy mate Steve tells me I should start jogging with him as it’s great “fun”. The conversation started with laughter but as the 3rd, 4th and 5th pint got sunk it started to sound something like this fat lad should do. A week later, on the snowy hills of Oldmeldrum the Jolly Boys were formed. The rest they say is, well scary at times!

At this point it’s probably worth mentioning JogScotlandMeldrum, our local running club, a place for encouragement, support, motivation, guidance for all levels of joggers and probably more importantly than we both ever thought a place for friendship. Oh yeah, and abuse (I’m looking at you Joanne).

We can’t explain how good a club it is and if it was not for the motivation of all the fantastic leaders and other joggers there is no way we would have continued to run.

Anyway, how did we get to the point that we feel you need to run 26.2 miles? Well we have flirted with the idea before but probably never had the balls to do it, then through covid lockdowns we have seen first hand the amount of support our good friend and her family has received from CHAS and we so desperately wanted to do something to help and with a freaky turn of fate, an idea to do a local run in memory of Derek's dad, then finding out his cousin was doing a marathon on the same weekend all stars were lining up to make this official and what better opportunity to raise some money for such an amazing charity, the only thing left to do was to rope Steve into it, which actually after 6 pints was easier than I thought.

We kept it quiet for a wee while whilst we started training however it soon became clear as we are racking up the miles that was something was up. Its here where Jill's journey starts. The proper runner of the group, its going to be great having her to push us all along.

Jill should have ran the Stirling Marathon last year but stupid Covid got in the way, she is gonna smash Inverness and will be the icing and cherry on top of the cake of motivation to keep the the two muppets in check!

The only thing now is to complete our training plan and on the 3rd of October go for a gentle jolly.

If you have managed to donate, we thank you so very much, we know every penny means so much to CHAS and makes such a difference.Seeing this first hand has really kicked us in to gear to try raise some much needed funds for them to continue the amazing job they do for so many amazing families.