Matthew Evans, of Coastal Cottages and Activity Wales, Stephen Rogers, of A. B. Rogers, and Nicky Rees, local fireman and lecturer at Pembrokeshire College, last week pulled off what many thought not possible. Three marathons back-to-back, and to make it slightly harder, the first two were amongst the hardest in Europe. And it may have been much harder had the Tenby Observer not appealed for a new driver and pulled a local legend out of retirement! The trio, who embarked on the epic challenge to raise funds for the Gareth Scotcher Trust Fund for Motor Neurone Disease, had to look for a new chauffeur just over a week before the first marathon. Steve said: "We were very lucky and many people came forward, but Pip Parker was on the 'phone straight away, and with his sporting background, driving ability and as an international sports star in his early days, he was able to offer the boys some sound advice on nutrition and refuelling. "The first being on Friday night before the race at the carbo loading meal. Nicky was about to order the house red and Pip just knew that the Châteauneuf-du-Pape was grown with marathon runners in mind and prevented dehydration by up to 10 times that of your average house red! You just can't buy that kind of information! The triple kicked-off with the Beachy Head marathon. Pip said: "It wasn't an ideal start for the boys as we did not expect it to be totally off road and the refuelling points were pretty poor, the first being nine miles from the start and no isotonic for the entire event!" The course started in Eastbourne and after four metres of tarmac, climbed the coast path towards beachhead and disappeared into the forest! Mud tracks, fields, 2 x 297 step climbs, woodland and styles followed before the final seven miles which tackled the Seven Sisters Mountains, one at a time! Nicky said afterwards: "Without doubt, this was the hardest. The terrain made for a really hard day, but couple that with winds and the 3,300 feet of climbing, it's not a marathon we ideally wanted to be kicking the three off with. But it's what we trained for and everything went to plan." Three-hundred miles of driving later, and the day after saw the three tackle Snowdon, dubbed as the hardest in the UK, but the boys claim Beachy Head makes it look flat! The marathon starts with a four-mile climb through the Llanberis Pass and then an undulating run before climbing 1,200-feet at 21 miles to 24 miles and dropping back down into Llanberis. Steve said: "The guys ran this last year and they did show me parts on the way to Anglesey Marathon at the start of the month. But the scenery was so stunning all the way round and the support for the three of us from everyone was so fantastic it really did carry us around what was supposed to be quite a hard marathon. Day three was Dublin. The fastest track of all three, but the boys did say they were tightening up here and knew that the first 40 minutes would be difficult. Matthew said: "This is the one we trained for. We knew we had to run sensibly in Beachy and Snowdon, and we were going to be a little jaded going into this, but it paid off. We trained together, started together and finished together and the feeling as we crossed that line was fantastic. "Our wives forced us to drink for most of the evening, but the next couple of weeks will be taken up in finalising monies raised and thanking people for such generosity. "We must not forget why we did this. We set out with a challenge to raise as much as we could to make a difference for Gareth and his family and together with the local community and our families we have done that, and we thank everyone who has been part of this journey". Donations are still pouring in, even from people they ran with in the marathons. The boys are hoping to have raised in the region of £4,000 for the Gareth Scotcher Trust. They trained over 1,500 miles each and travelled over 1,000 miles completing the three marathons. Of the 14,000 runners that ran in the three marathons collectively, 33 attempted the 3 in 3 with early reports of 16 finishers. The donations will close on Thursday, November 30. Donations can be made to the boys directly at http://www.3in3.co.uk">www.3in3.co.uk or at Coastal Cottages office, Deer Park, Tenby, tel. (01834) 844000. In closing, the boys would like to thank everyone who made a donation, Tees 'R Us for the t-shirts, Vox Group for the transport, Goscar Rock for the internet site, Coastal Cottages for incurring all transaction fees and bank charges enabling all donations to go to Gareth, Pip Parker for driving and motivation, the Tenby Observer for their coverage and appeals and finally our families and friends that supported us through training and drove hundreds of miles to support us through the event.