TWO members of the Helensburgh Amateur Athletics Club have received special medals after completing the Six Star Global Challenge by running the world's six most famous marathons.

Jan Fellows, 62, from Shandon, and 41-year-old Debbie Savage have joined the elite list of 1,740 people in the world to gain the six-star finisher title after crossing the finishing line of their final race in Tokyo last month.

They were accompanied in Tokyo by Becky Beale, from Helensburgh, who has completed three of the six major marathons.

Debbie, from Balloch, said: “I had done the five major marathons of the world - they are London, Berlin, Chicago, Boston and New York - and then a few years ago they added Tokyo to the list, so we decided we had to do that.

“I never planned to do the six majors but it’s just the way it has worked.

“It was quite special crossing the finishing line in Tokyo knowing that I had finished the six big marathons, so I got quite a nice, fancy medal, it’s quite heavy.

However, Debbie wasn’t always a runner. She told the Advertiser: “When I worked as cabin crew I started running outside, and it was good because I got to see a place.

“So when I got to a place like San Francisco, I would put my trainers on and go explore and I would get lost most of the time but I would go run. I thought it was amazing.

Her friends, Jan and Becky, also ran the Tokyo marathon alongside Debbie on February 24.

The three women agreed that the Tokyo marathon was particularly special because they were all there to motivate each other.

Becky said: “Me and Debbie have done a few marathons together, but Tokyo was actually first marathon that we've run all the way round together which was quite nice.

“Usually we just run at our own pace but we decided to run together. The pace was OK for both of us and at no point was I holding Debbie up or vice versa and it was quite a nice feeling to run along with her, and for the finish we held hands through the finish line.

“The Japanese supporters were all really friendly and if you waved at them, they got really excited.

“I remember seeing one group and they said 'congratulations, random runner' and I remember waving and saying thanks and they seemed to totally lose it and get to excited. Memories like that make you think it was just so amazing.”

Jan and Debbie have set themselves the ambitious challenge of running on the seven continents of the world and completing the global 7 Continents Marathon Challenge next.

Jan, who completed the Tokyo marathon at her own pace, said: “That’s Debbie’s idea, but I’ve been talked in to it. I‘ve run lots of European marathons, several in north America, one in Australia and one in Asia, so next year it’s Rio in south America and that leaves Africa and Antarctica.”

Debbie added: “The seven-continent challenge takes me to places I’ve never been. Antarctica is included in that so that will be quite a challenge, I don’t know how we’re going to do that!"