Buckie Thistle run through the night to raise £3,500 for five local charities
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PLAYERS, coaches and even committee members from Buckie Thistle Football Club ran through the night to raise £3,500 for five local good causes.
Jags were challenged to do the 24-hour charity running event, where willing athletes at the club ran as far as they could for an hour before passing on the virtual baton to the next member.
Defender Hamish Munro came up with the idea of the Buckie boys running a total of 319km, the distance between Jags’ Victoria Park ground and the Hampden Park national stadium.
Jags chose Buckie Cancer Link, Buckie Salvation Army, Friends of Seafield Hospital, Parklands Care Home and Netherha Care Home as the five charities to benefit, and the fundraising total had reached £3,500 by Tuesday.
Donate to the cause here.
Munro was delighted to play his part in the challenge and had a personal reason for going that extra mile to make more cash.
His father Donnie, a loyal Buckie fan over the years, suffered a stroke several weeks ago, but is making some progress on the road to recovery, having been transferred to Buckie’s Seafield Hospital.
“It’s hard not being able to visit him but we’ve had some video chats with him,” he said.
“He’s making progress, he’s speaking away he’s up standing and stuff. It’s promising steps, though there’s a huge way to go in his recovery and it’s a long, slow process and difficult that we can’t go in an help.
“There’s countless families in similar situations and guys in the team who have lost relatives over this last period of time, so I would imagine it’s been hard for so many people.
“It’s all local causes that we’ve done this for and great that we’ve got to give something back.”
Munro admitted the 12.66 kilometres he managed was the longest run of his life. The midday heat took its toll but he reached his finish line at Spey Bay and celebrated by racing into the sea for a cooling dip, watched by his wife and children.
“They had a laugh at me jumping into the water. It was certainly refreshing and it saves me having ice baths.”
Club captain Kevin Fraser was the star runner, going 14.7km in his hour at 4am in Inverness. First off was young striker Marcus Goodall at 7pm on Friday, going for 13.43km before youngster Fergus Edwards clocked up an impressive 14.63km in the second hour.
Local lad Shaun Wood hit the road for 14.39km, while both Sam Urquhart and Craig Cowie beat the 14km mark with runs on Saturday morning.
The last runner was defender Sam Morrison, with his effort bringing the Jags total to just over 312km, just short of their target.
It wasn’t just the players who took part. Manager Graeme Stewart and many of his coaching staff also did their bit, including former player Stephen Bruce who ran 11.73km in the humidity of Houston, Texas, where he is based with his job.
Assistant manager Lewis MacKinnon couldn’t run as he pulled his calf while training, but still managed to do an hour on a spinning bike to offer his own contribution.
Director of football Graeme Tallis did a half-hour while his son Jordan ran a 10k in his hour, and daughter Taylor also took part in the run.
