A Dundee dad refused to let his Christmas Day marathon fundraising effort get blown off course.
Joe Murphy was 20 miles into the marathon, running back and forth across the Tay Road Bridge, when it was closed due to high winds.
Undeterred, the 33-year-old returned in the evening and finished off the run, which he hopes will raise more than £1,000 for housing charity Shelter.
The offshore worker had extra support as girlfriend Zanna gave birth to their son Joe Jr six days early on December 23. Joe, who is originally from Cumbria, said: “I think Joe Jr arrived early to cheer me on.
“It was all going fine, but the wind did pick up a bit. I was just a little over the 20-mile mark at the seventh circuit with just another two to do.
“A guy appeared out of nowhere and told us quite dramatically to get off the bridge.
“It didn’t feel like 60mph and I was still able to run in a straight line, it wasn’t like we were getting blown off the bridge. It’s just one of those things, they’re just doing their job.”
Joe was joined on the first part of the marathon by his brother Patrick, and the pair were not the bridge’s only Christmas Day visitors.
He said: “I had an interesting conversation with a German dude who rode his bike from Hull to Inverness and was crossing the bridge to go back to Edinburgh.”
During the break Joe held a Christmas dinner in the Mark Henderson Centre on Ann Street for people who could not afford their own meal.
He said: “It was about 6pm by the time I got back to the bridge and finished the marathon. I would have gone at 11 or 12 at night if I had to, I was always going to finish it.
“If I couldn’t have done it on Christmas Day I would have done the whole thing again on Boxing Day, because my legs were feeling fine after the 20-mile mark.”
Joe has already completed a marathon around his rig, raising £3,000 for War Child with the Rig Run in October. His donation page is at justgiving.com/The-Rig-Runner.