AN unusual team of Portland residents will be taking on next Sunday’s 3 Bays marathon, with four walkers with a combined age of 305 set to hit the track as part of the Portland Runners Club Running Festival.

The quartet will include veteran marathon competitors Brian Glover (who turns 81 three days after the event), Michael Pitman (78), Beryl King (74) and Alan Perry (73) will all complete a leg of the 42km event in a relay.

Glover and King are both veterans of the solo marathon, having completed it 22 and 13 times respectively, with Perry having also completed it a couple of times as well, for a grand total of 37 completions between them.

Glover explained that the group met through the various Parkrun events which takes place in Portland, and that this is an opportunity for them to remain engaged in the 3 Bays event.

“We’re not really able to do the full marathon anymore, so we decided to do the relay event instead,” he said.

“I’ll be doing the final leg, which is the 12-kilometre section, the other three sections are broken down in to 10km.

“We’re calling ourselves ‘The 305s’ on account of our ages.”

Pitman said he was likely to be the “problem child” of the group having not completed a full 10 km walk before.

“I normally just do the 5km Parkrun once a week, so doubling that will be a real challenge,” he said.

“I’d imagine I’ll be feeling it on the Sunday afternoon and in the days after.”

Glover said the group “isn’t worried about time” and that the end goal is simply getting to the finish line.

“I would expect anything under six hours would be a good effort for us,” he said.

“We just hope there’s someone there at the end when we arrive,” Pitman added.

“We’re beyond the age where we really care about times, it’s all about enjoying the experience… hopefully the weather is a little bit better than some of what we’ve had so far.”

“I’ll probably be one of the slowest… I used to be quick but not anymore,” King said.

“I’ve done a few half and quarters as well as a relay before.

“We met each other through the Parkruns and figured since we’re all over 70 why don’t we get together and keep doing it.”

The 3 Bays Running Festival will take place across next weekend (November 4-5), with entries still open for Saturday’s ultra-marathon as well as Sunday’s full, half, quarter and relay marathon events.