Dumfries Running Club
The Marcothon
The Marcothon is a deceptively difficult running challenge that has been taking place for several years now and requires people to run every day in December for a minimum of three miles or 25 minutes.
Marco Consani is one of Scotland’s foremost ultra runners and he devised this personal challenge to encourage runners to push themselves in the winter months and to complete extra distance.
In 2023 five club members took part but for December 2024 this was expanded to an incredible 29 who started and 16 who managed to run every single day. There is no entry fee, no prizes and no reward beyond the personal satisfaction of completing something that is difficult and requires substantial personal motivation.
In all, the group managed 2,500 miles between them and with Robert Gordon and Rebecca Queen at the heart of it, a WhatsApp group helped keep people on target as many had to attempt this whilst balancing family life, work commitments and the usual stresses and strains. Finding time in the most hectic of months was always difficult with cold wet weather and the 60mph winds of Storm Darragh. This meant many of the runs were done solo, with the nagging feeling that there were many better things to do than run in the dark but weekly group runs as well as regular parkruns at the Crichton helped push people on.
Fiona Gonlag, for example, had never even run two days together and Nicola Ross was pleased to reach seven and both were absolutely delighted to complete 100 miles in the whole of December.
For Claire McLaren, daily runs had to be fitted in at 5.30am before a 12 hour shift as a midwife and for Kerry Precious, John Currie and Liz Scarfe, each new club members for 2024, feeling part of a group and getting to know others really helped to push them on. Gillian Little was so determined not to let her teammates down that she sometimes doubled back on herself to make sure she completed the full distance.
For Rebecca Queen and Lorna Tullius, each knew how difficult it was as they had completed it last year and they were able to give invaluable support and advice to others. Yeolande Davies, Carolyn Priestley and Kirsty Templeton all rose to the challenge, and not letting your teammates down became a major source of motivation. Each actually even enjoyed some of runs on the rare days when the weather behaved itself.
Heather Rankine had the motivation of running many times with her dogs Angus and Roy who were always up for exercise. For Louise Mcpeake the difficult part was having to run late at night and the final day on the same regular route was hard. She did, however, have the consolation of winning the DRC Christmas handicap on December 15 and that was able to count towards her total.
Campbell McCaig used the regular runs to help for future training for the Manchester marathon in April and not letting people down became a real driver to succeed. Campbell did several runs after Christmas on holiday near Oban and the incessant rain meant he got soaked through each day. Rhiannon Breed was not able to join her teammates but completed a different version by doing the 12 runs of Christmas which also became a real focus.
Club captain Robert Gordon motivated others and managed to cover 100 miles but frustratingly, got injured at the end of the month and had to miss the final two days but took great satisfaction in the achievement of others.
Finally, the best achievement was by Ross Neil who had never even heard of the Marcothon challenge. Despite spending half of December working on an oil rig in the North Sea, he was an active and enthusiastic member of the group. Each day he had to keep an eye on weather data to plan any sessions on the treadmill as if the waves were too high it was dangerous to use the running machine and he had to swap to the rowing the distance instead. Being consistent and doing something daily helped him feel part of the group and kept a link with home.
Monday night group/ JogScotland 2025
The Monday night beginners and improvers group meets on Mondays at Dumfries Sports Club on Nunholm Road at 6.30pm where organised groups are led over distances from 2km at a suitable pace up to five miles. Prospective newcomers are reminded that high visibility clothing is required for safety on darker nights. Further details can be found on www.dumfriesrunningclub.org.uk The free Jog Scotland programme has started and newcomers are very welcome, regardless of whether you have ever run before.