Patrick raises over £1k in first marathon

A pair of lads from Lilliesleaf have used the lockdown to raise cash for Doddie Weir’s MND charity.
Monroe Job, Patrick Macdonell and Sam Clark on the nighttime run.Monroe Job, Patrick Macdonell and Sam Clark on the nighttime run.
Monroe Job, Patrick Macdonell and Sam Clark on the nighttime run.

Fifteen-year-old Selkirk High School pupil Patrick Macdonell ran a solo nighttime marathon on the shortest night, accompanied by pal Monroe Job, 16, who cycled the route and, most importantly, carried the biscuits and the Lucozade.

And together, they have blown their initial funding target of £500 out of the water – raising £1,129 to date.

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Patrick said he had been running since the start of lockdown, but got the idea when he noticed that with the lack of any sport going on, the charity was not so much in the spotlight.

Selkirk was reached in under an hour.Selkirk was reached in under an hour.
Selkirk was reached in under an hour.

He said: “I just thought that with no rugby going on, that there was a drop in momentum for Doddie’s cause.

“I was also a bit bored, but that’s another matter.”

The duo set off from the Back Road in the Borders village at 11pm, accompanied for the first part of the run by family and friends from Clerklands, and they reached Selkirk in under an hour.

Doddie’s old stomping ground at the Greenyards in Melrose was passed too quickly for a photo opportunity.

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“Nobody gonna break my stride,” was Patrick’s response to a request for a photo, in this, his first marathon.

They took in the villages of Eildon, Bowden and Midlem, before completing the 26.2 miles with a loop round Riddell Estate in three hours and 51 minutes.

Patrick said: “I had been told to run close to the whole distance beforehand, and I did that the week before.

“I was still feeling it by then, and the marathon was harder than I thought, with a fair bit of incline.

“It tookquite a toll on my body, but I’m happy to have done it.

You can still donate to Patrick’s Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/patrickmacdonell

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