PITCH PERFECT
Ayr duo complete seven half-marathons and check in at seven Scottish football grounds ... finishing at Ibrox
Two Rangers-daft pals crossed the finish line at Ibrox after blazing a trail round Scottish football grounds.
Ayr duo Jonny Duff, 22, and Jacob McKenzie, 23, finished off at the famous stadium as they completed a series of seven cities, in seven days running seven half-marathons.
The keen runners, who regularly take on the Carrick Hills together, set off in the first week of April to hit the streets home to Scottish football clubs in a bid to tackle mental health.
The pair set off to coin it in for The Kris Boyd Charity after being backed by the former Rangers hero. In just one week, the lads experienced all the seasons; from braving the snow in Aberdeen to experiencing some sunshine on Leith in Edinburgh.
And it was lucky number seven for the pair with their runs through Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh and Glasgow raising £2,000 for the charity.
Jonny, a former Kyle Academy pupil who is training to be a PE teacher, told The Ayrshire Post: “It was a really good week.
“The travelling was a wee bit draining but every run went well. We didn’t really have any issues apart from some blisters.
“In Aberdeen it was pretty snowy and the terrain was through golf courses which was quite challenging.
“Perth was probably the highest elevation that we experienced so all that training on the Carrick Hills certainly helped!
“Getting up in the morning was probably the hardest part, it was quite mentally tough.
“But we were always looking forward to seeing the stadiums, we’re big football fans so that kept us going.”
The duo spread the word of the charity along the way with kind AirBnB hosts pledging donations and kind regulars in a Perth pub taking an interest in their endeavours.
Jonny said: “We had T-shirts on with the picture of us with Kris Boyd. It attracted some interest and we got to speak to a few folk along the way about what we were doing.”
The duo took in all the sights of the Edinburgh derby as they raced past Hearts and Hibs fans heading to Tynecastle for the crunch tie.
Jonny added: “We ran from Easter
Road through to Tynecastle which was a good laugh. The Hibs team bus arrived just as we were at Tynecastle. It was a bit of madness running past the two sets of supporters.”
The pair took a tour of leisure centres throughout the country to rest up after runs, enjoying saunas and swimming pools as they drove from city to city.
Jonny has told how they had to dig deep on the final run “saving the best ground till last” as they were greeted by family outside Ibrox.
He added: “We got to Hampden and realised we still had 3.5 miles to run. We had to dig deep but we knew we were nearly there.”
Jonny hailed the backing and added: “It’s amazing how over the course people were donating left, right and centre.”