\n However, this year, Ian wanted to set himself another challenge and decided to tackle the Ultra X Inverness. He had to run 50k for this marathon trail.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ian and Max. (Image: Contributed)\n<\/p>\n
\n The race takes place in the highlands around the banks of Loch Ness.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking to the Advertiser about why he undertook the challenge, he said: \u201cHonestly it was probably the result of being very optimistic about something and just kind of going for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cLast year, running the fundraiser for Andy\u2019s Man Club was just about raising awareness.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This year it was more so just to push and challenge myself and see if at this age I still had it in me had, to be honest, but it turns out, I was okay.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI convinced myself that because it wasn\u2019t a road marathon, and it\u2019s kind of expected that people will walk parts of it, that it would be a lot easier, when in actual fact it was substantially harder because of the elevation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI would definitely say it was the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ian\u2019s son, Max, who is just two and a half years old, was there at the race to cheer his dad on and even crossed the finish line with him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can remember the finish line was on the bank of the loch, and it was over a field that was quite undulating.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo, the last maybe 500 metres, I could see the finish line, but I couldn\u2019t really see any of the people there because of the hills.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ian crossed the finish line with his son, Max. (Image: Ultra X\/ Ben Tufnell)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThen I remember turning a corner and just seeing him [Max] run up towards me, and oh my goodness, it was just the most surreal thing.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI wanted to run across the finish line of a race like that with him and he kind of ran towards me, I picked him up, gave him a cuddle, and then he actually ran alongside me for a bit.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was just the most surreal thing ever\u201d, Ian added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, Ian is looking ahead to his next challenge, and he hopes to try running the Lake Garda Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ian Mclellan, 37, has worked at the gym in Alloa for just over three years now and is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,163,85,46],"class_list":["post-486203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}