Oldham dad and son complete Golspie Backyard Ultra

Allan Parkin, 58, and his son George, 24, finished the Golspie Backyard Ultra, which takes place in a village in Sutherland, located in the north of the country.

The "backyard ultra-marathon" event, which took place on Saturday, November 4, involved a continuous 4.1 mile loop.

Each competitor was required to complete the 4.1 mile loop each hour. Once the loop is completed, the competitors cannot set off on their next lap until the top of the hour.

Allan and George managed 112.5 miles (27 hourly loops) and 83.4 miles (20 hourly loops), and coming in third and sixth places respectively.

Allan said: “The beauty of it is that you have to finish in time to do things, [such as] going to the toilet, changing clothes, sorting out soreness on your feet, or even just something such as eating.

"Apparently, the optimum time is 53 minutes. It sounds easy in theory but pretty quickly it becomes brutal as the laps go on.”

Allan in action (Image: Public)

Despite having ran for more than a full day straight and finishing in third spot, since the race, Allan has felt “gutted” that he didn’t carry on.

He said: “I got in on lap 27, set off for another one and then just turned back.

"You get to a point where your body’s tired, your guts are off, and your brain just convinces you that you’re happy. But I’ve already got regrets.

"I finished on time, so I should’ve set off for another.

"You always should when you’re getting in on time. I keep wishing I could go back in time to the weekend.

"Saying that, words are easy, it’s putting it into practice that’s the hard bit.”

Allan started running 11 years ago, aged 48, after doing a two-mile run at Dovestones with his wife.

From there, he has built his way up exceedingly quickly, from half-marathons to regular marathons, then a 40-mile run, a 95-mile run, and now backyard ultras.

He said: “I got into it very quickly. You’re always looking for the next thing to do. It’s a really good addiction to have and I think George has got that as well now.

“He just fell into [running] and now we both push each other on. We openly admit that we want to beat each other but the last thing either of us want to see is the other one go out [of a race] early. I think he’s catching up to me now though!”

George, who has only been running for two-and-a-half years, has now completed 10 backyard ultra-marathons.

Both he and his dad have plant-based diets which they think aids recovery.

George in action (Image: Public)

George said: “After the race we were both immediately back out. I’ve done a four-mile run on Wednesday and I’m pretty sure my dad did similar.

"Certainly, it helps with recovery, but we don’t have any science to back that up that I know of.”

A massive Oldham Athletic fan known by many locals, George reported from Golspie on Facebook, posting to more than 50,000 followers on his account, "The Oldham Groundhopper".

He also goes to extreme lengths to improve his running, recently completing an "accumulator challenge" to prepare for the race, whereby he would run one mile on day one, two on day to and so on and so forth, all the way up to 31.

This meant that he completed over seven marathons worth of running in the last week of the challenge.

He explained that there are ways to complete the heavy training schedule if competitors have the right mentality.

He said: “I was about two weeks into the challenge and Latics were at Wealdstone away.

"I still had to do about eight miles, so I just did it down there after the game.

“My mentality for training and races is quite similar really. You just have to carry on.

"You’re all going to experience aches and pains, but you have to push through.

"You can be fit as anything, but it doesn’t matter, because if you’re mentally weak, you’ll just give up.”

George, a driver’s mate, and Allan, who supports adults with disabilities, both said that they manage to get training done without it heavily interrupting their daily lives.

George said: “My dad always says there’s 24 hours in a day, so if you have to do a load when you finish work, it’s tough! It’s just about making sure that you do it.”

Both say that they’d “love to win one”, but also have their eyes set on more personalised goals.

George said: “I know if I won one, I’d be going ‘right, I want to win another one now.’ I think my main goal at the moment is to get to 24 hours, which would be 100 miles.”

Allan added: “I’ve definitely got more in me. My personal best for backyard running is 31 laps (129.1 miles). We’ve all got goals and one of my main ones is to beat that.

The rest period is a short one for both, as Allan and George will both compete in another backyard ultra-marathon in a couple of weeks in Leeds.