The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Ready for 100-mile run
TO CALL it a step into the unknown might be the summit of understatement, but in a little over a fortnight, two Tayside men will run 100 miles in 24 hours and they have declared themselves ready for the challenge.
Angus businessman Brian Binnie and personal trainer Ian Hadden are looking to banish the enemies of physical and mental exhaustion in a journey on the roads of Angus, Dundee and Perthshire to raise money for counselling charity, Insight.
On June 9 Brian (43) and Ian (41) will embark from theangus Show near Brechin, taking them on a route south to Arbroath, along the Angus coast to Dundee and then along the Tay almost as far as Glencarse.
They will loop back, bound for Kingennie inangus where a Sunday family fun day has been planned to welcome the pair.
Former Royal Marine and police officer Ian has once completed a ‘100 in 24’ ultra event during a service career that was curtailed by injury, before he battled back to the levels of fitness which have seen him train Brian for several marathons after the quarry stone firm owner and farmer took up longdistance running when he turned 40.
“It’s a huge challenge and a completely different approach from that which you would take to tackling a marathon,” said Brian.
He added: “It’s been a great journey to get to where we are now – which is that we are as ready for this as we ever will be.
“We have a tremendous support crew behind us and my wife, Alison, has done a huge amount of work to make sure every detail is planned,” continued Brian, of Denfind, Monikie.
“Folk have been genuinely supportive, wanting to get involved in helping us any way they can and we hope people will continue that through our online fundraising page at justgiving.com/100-24challenge.”
Having been there before, Ian realises the scale of the task they will take on when they leave the Angus showground.
“Mentally it will be horrendous and every sinew in our bodies will be screaming, every muscle will be working – but we will get through it,” he said.