Super seven from Banff based Motive Offshore are under starter's orders for Edinburgh Marathon to raise £5000 for Macmillan Cancer Support
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AT the end of this month, a team of seven from the Motive Offshore Group will make their marathon debut in Edinburgh.
Chief Operating Officer, James Gregg and Dave Acton, Eddie Moore, Graeme Chalmers, Daniel Janicki, Ryan Thomson, David Halkett, Ross Whittingham are banking on their marathon effort raising £5000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
With the start line now in their sights, the team are packing in as much training as they can as the enormity of the task which lies ahead hits home.
Team members are based all over the world - the company has three UK bases and offices in America, the UAE, Norway and Taiwan.
Company boss James Gregg has done training runs in Houston and London as well as closer to home - completing 5k loops around the Deveron at Huntly with engineering manager David Halkett whose training regime recently included lambing 350 ewes on his farm near Marnoch.
The company is based at Boyndie, near Banff and David and Ross Whittingham clocked up nine laps of the adjacent circuit to complete a half marathon.
During a subsea expo in Aberdeen, James was able to meet up with Graeme Chalmers, who was attending from Dubai, for an early morning 7k run.
Despite the miles that separate the runners, they keep tabs on each other using Strava to ensure that there's no slacking and everyone is on target for the run on Sunday, May 29.
James (42) said: "My goal is just to finish. Training has made it very clear to me that it's not going to be easy. We have a training schedule but with work, travel and family, it has been really hard to fit everything in."
David, (35) who has two of a family and a third on the way said: "It's going to be a tall order. Our aim is one long and two short training runs a week but you have to allow up to four hours for a long run so it's tough going."
Team members took part in the Garioch half marathon last weekend as part of the preparations.
The Edinburgh route starts in Holyrood Park Road, down the Royal Mile, past the Scottish Parliament before heading east towards the coast to Musselburgh and beyond before runners turn back along the coast for the finish line.
Motive has previously supported local causes including Keith Cancer Link and Deveron Homestart but chose Macmillan Cancer Support which works 24/7 365 days a year to ensure nobody has to face cancer alone.
James Added: "Knowing we are raising money for this fantastic cause helps us to keep going training. All of us have lost family or friends to cancer so it's important to us.
"Team Motive aims to raise as much as we possibly can and I urge folk to go to our Just Giving page and show their support for the team - every donation no matter the amount will help us reach our target."
To donate go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/team-motive-marathon.
