Saturday morning in Hill of Banchory, and the seven members of the Banchory 100 are guests of honour at the local primary school fun run.
All dads from the Aberdeenshire town, the seven are in the final preparations for a 100km fundraising run on behalf of one of their wives, Morag MacRae, who in 2022 suffered a near-fatal brain infection while on holiday in Australia.
Right now, however, they are handing out medals to the school children who have just completed the much shorter 1.5km route around the local woods.
Standing watching is Morag herself. She is amazed at the effort the seven dads are making in her name, and how much the Banchory community have embraced the cause. Part of the proceeds from the fun run will go to the Banchory 100 fundraiser.
“It’s been so lovely,” she says. “It really has spoken volumes about what we can do when we pull together.”
A thank you to the facilities that saved Morag’s life
Starting Friday night, the seven dads, including Morag’s husband Martin, will run for an estimated 15 hours, running through the night on the hill trails around Banchory.
Their aim — other than to avoid tripping over tree roots in the dark — is to raise £10,000 for the three facilities that saved Morag’s life after she was diagnosed with the rare condition meningoencephalitis.
The condition, which struck one week into a family trip to Brisbane in in October 2022, left Morag unable to speak and move. She was on holiday with Martin, daughter Holly and five-year-old twins Ben and Matthew.
This weekend’s run will raise funds for the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where Morag underwent an emergency craniectomy when her brain started swelling.
The other two beneficiaries: Friends of the Neuro Ward, which supports the neuro rehab unit at Woodend Hospital, and Horizons Rehabilitation Centre. Both helped Morag learn to walk and talk again after being flown back to Aberdeen from Australia under medical escort.
“They were the ones that got me back on my feet emotionally, as well as mentally,” she says of the three facilities. “They were the people that saved my life, essentially.”
Two years on from her brain infection she has almost completely recovered. She will be cheering Martin and the other dads on when they complete their run, even though she’s not quite sure why he’s chosen to do it.
After all, there are easier ways to raise money.
“I think he wants to say thank you and he wants to do something to push himself physically, which I don’t really understand,” she says. “But I’m really intensely proud of him.”
How Martin came up with the Banchory 100 plan
The idea for the run first arose when Martin and friend John Pope hiked up Banchory landmark Scolty Hill.
At the top they cracked open a couple of beers and mapped out the basic route.
Starting in Banchory, the seven will run up Hill of Fare past some of their own homes and through Torphins and Potarch.
From the top of Clachnaben they will ascend Kerloch, Cairn-mon-earn and Rhindbuckie, continue down through Strachan and on to Hill of Gauch before the ascent to the top of Scolty and the finish in Banchory’s King George V Park.
In all, the runners will climb a total of 3,000 metres, the equivalent of two and bit Ben Nevises. For Martin it’s a huge step up from a half marathon, the furthest distance he had run previously.
“It’s probably not the most sensible step,” he admits.
‘We’ve made such a great team’
The other dads are also motivated by the challenge — and Morag’s inspirational story of recovery.
And in another example of Banchory’s community spirit, they reveal that they didn’t really know each other before taking on the challenge.
“We tried to find people that didn’t really know each other,” explains John. “But the lovely thing is that we’ve made such a great team.”
Joining Martin and John are Carlos Mejuto, David Stockan, Stuart Watt, Peter Torrance and Andy Leslie.
They have varying levels of long-distance-running experience — Peter has run further in the past, though on a less hilly route, while John, Martin and Stuart are relative newcomers.
Perhaps because of that, they have agreed to run the whole distance together. If one member of the Banchory 100 is struggling, the rest will slow down or take turns to drop back with them.
If the group didn’t know each other when they started out on this adventure, they will by the time they finish.
“Yes,” agrees John. “Intimately.”