Scottish Sea Champions get their running shoes on!

Seven runners, representing seven species of turtle complete the Together for Turtles challenge

Seven Edinburgh based Sea Champions have each ran a marathon between North Berwick and the Tay - a total of 183 miles! All in order to raise funds for our work with turtles through the MCS Turk and Caicos Islands (TCI) Turtle Project.

Each team member of the “Together for Turtles” team ran for one of the seven species of marine turtle worldwide, of which leatherback, green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead are endangered and visit UK waters. 

The "Together for Turtles" route started in North Berwick, passed Edinburgh, up the entire Fife coastal path to the Tay, and back again to Leith. Each participant ran a 26.2 mile section of this and the next runner carried on from that point on the following day.

Matt Barnes, who represented the Green turtle, and ran from Leith to Kinghorn talks about the highs and lows: 

“After training throughout a heatwave, I set off remembering the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion as I gained pace. However, just after I began, the skies darkened, the thunder roared and the lightening brought torrential rain. This was to be the theme of the week with our biggest team skill being how to run forward while not drowning in the horizontal water hitting our faces!"

"The team were great and brought enthusiasm for the cause but most of all a sense of humour as the conditions were ridiculous. Some highs were team members running past hauled out seals on route and even our trial angling bins on the beach being used by someone as we ran by. Lows were realising the coastal path had eroded onto the beach in some areas meaning we were running on sand! Forget images of Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff prancing on sun kissed shores these were rain soaked runners stumbling on beaches ridden with Sewage Related Debris".

It’s not over yet, Sea Champion Neil Madigan, our very own Chris Hoy, will be cycling the entire route back on the 17th August to cement the challenge in history. So if you haven’t shared, shouted on donated it’s not too late!

If you want to be involved in something similar next year, get in touch with Matt Barnes matt.barnes@mcsuk.org

The Together for Turtles team are still collecting sponsors at www.mcsuk.org/url/togetherforturtles