FOOTBALL managers often label away venues as “a difficult place to go”.
And while James Stout is not travelling to St Andrews, Luncarty or Perth, he is still clocking up the miles.
Ahead of the club’s away league games this season, the chaplain at Dunbar United is getting on his exercise bike and pedalling the equivalent distance of New Countess Park to each opposition football club’s destination.
He said: “The longest distance is St Andrews, which, off the top of my head, is 80-something miles.
“I am doing it as if you were driving and as if you were able to cycle on motorways.
“Most of the games are quite big distances.
“Musselburgh and Haddington are the two closest ones but we have got three or four in Edinburgh or Penicuik and then round to Sauchie, Dunipace and a couple of Perth teams.
“For the most part, they are 50-kilometres-plus, with St Andrews being the biggest at about 140 kilometres.
“I deliberately did just the league ones – Dunbar would have probably got drawn away to Wick Academy in the Scottish Cup and I would need two weeks’ holiday!”
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The season's effort will see James complete 16 cycles, with ‘trips’ to Glenrothes and Musselburgh already ticked off.
However, the 44-year-old still has arduous ‘visits’ to the Riverside Stadium and Brownlands Park homes of Jeanfield Swifts and Luncarty in Perthshire, to look forward to over the coming months.
He said: “The plan is in the week Dunbar play the game, that is when I do the cycle and do them in one go.
“I will pick an evening and go for it.
“The longest was Glenrothes, which I managed to do in one go and did that in just about three-and-a-half hours.
“Then, the Musselburgh one was just under an hour.
“We’ve got Haddington next (September 7) and it is only 13 miles, so I'm hoping to get that done really quick.”
Each away trip is raising awareness of and money for Sports Chaplaincy UK.
The organisation provides pastoral and spiritual care across a variety of sports, including football, rugby, shinty and cricket.
James, who lives in Dunbar, said: “Sport is a massive thing in Scotland.
“We are talking about a semi-professional level but you go down to kids’ clubs and the support kids need, particularly at youth level, where they are building up dreams of wanting to be a professional.
“If they don’t become a reality, sometimes clubs cast them aside and they are left wondering what do they do?
“There are huge opportunities to put people in place to grow alongside kids and to say it might not be going the way you expected it but it is not the end.
“You can work with them and build them up and make sure they are well supported in life.”
To support James, go to www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/EOS_Cycling_Challenge
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