Highland Fuel Nutrition Joins Jackie McNamara & Simon Donnelly on the Road to London

We’re delighted to announce that Highland Fuel Nutrition will be supporting Jackie McNamara and Simon Donnelly on their Road to London, as the former Celtic teammates prepare to take on the 2027 London Marathon.

The pair are swapping the football pitch for the pavement and embarking on a 32-week training journey towards 26.2 miles in London, while raising money for two fantastic causes — Headway UK and the Consilium Sports Group Foundation.

Throughout that journey, Highland Fuel Nutrition will be their endurance fuel partner, working with Jackie and Simon from the early stages of their training right through to marathon day.

And for us, this partnership is about much more than simply sending them some products.

From the Football Pitch to 26.2 Miles

The challenge started with a promise on Not Another Football Podcast.

Jackie and Simon pledged that if Celtic were crowned Premiership champions, they would lace up their trainers and take on the London Marathon.

Celtic delivered. Now it’s their turn.

What started as a bet between mates, however, has quickly developed into something much bigger.

For Jackie in particular, reaching the London Marathon start line represents a milestone that at one point would have seemed almost impossible.

In February 2020, Jackie suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and subarachnoid haemorrhage after collapsing at home. He underwent emergency surgery and spent 15 days in intensive care.

Six years later, he is preparing to run a marathon.

The challenge will raise vital funds and awareness for Headway UK, the brain injury association supporting survivors and their families, alongside the Consilium Sports Group Foundation, which uses the power of sport to create opportunities for young people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Learning to Fuel for a Marathon

Jackie and Simon have spent their lives around professional sport, but preparing for a marathon brings a completely different set of demands.

One of the parts of this partnership we’re most looking forward to is meeting the guys and getting to know them properly — understanding where they are starting from, what their training looks like and how they currently approach nutrition.

From there, we’ll guide them through the differences between fuelling for football and fuelling for endurance running.

Marathon fuelling isn't something to leave until race week. It needs to be practised throughout training, particularly as the long runs increase and the body becomes accustomed to taking on carbohydrates and fluid while running.

We'll work with Jackie and Simon to establish what works for each of them rather than simply handing them a generic plan.

That means looking at their carbohydrate intake, hydration and electrolytes, understanding their individual preferences and gradually developing a strategy that they can practise during training and ultimately trust on marathon day.

Fuelled by Highland Fuel Nutrition

Throughout their Road to London, Jackie and Simon will have access to Highland Fuel Nutrition endurance fuel alongside gels from our partner brands, giving us the flexibility to build a practical fuelling strategy around their individual needs.

We'll introduce them to the different options, show them how and when to use them and, most importantly, give them plenty of opportunity to test everything during training.

As the distances increase, we'll be able to see what works, what doesn't and make adjustments along the way.

There is also something particularly exciting coming.

Our own Highland Fuel Nutrition energy gels are currently in development.

Once they move into production, Jackie and Simon will be among those we'll introduce to the new gels, and they'll be available for the guys to incorporate into their training and marathon fuelling alongside the rest of the HFN range.

It means they'll get to experience another major step in the development of Highland Fuel Nutrition while they're working towards a pretty significant milestone of their own.

32 Weeks to London

This isn't a one-off partnership around race weekend. We'll be involved throughout the training programme.

Our first dedicated Nutrition & Fuel introduction is provisionally planned for the week commencing 28 September. We’re planning to meet Jackie and Simon, introduce them properly to HFN and begin working through how they will fuel the months of training ahead.

The following week, week commencing 5 October, we're planning a further Nutrition & Fuel session where we'll be able to show more of what they're using and start putting those lessons into practice.

Then comes the important bit: training.

Over the following weeks and months, Jackie and Simon will be able to practise their nutrition as their mileage and long runs increase. We'll stay involved, answer questions and help them adapt their approach as they learn what works best.

Around early December, we're planning to catch up again and look at how the fuel is faring — what they're enjoying, what they've learned and whether anything needs to change as they head deeper into marathon preparation.

These are rough dates and may move as the wider training programme develops, but we'll be sharing plenty from the journey as it unfolds.

More Than Just the Running

The Road to London programme will go far beyond training runs.

Across the 32 weeks there are plans for medical and fitness assessments, training updates, charity stories, special podcast episodes, guest appearances and contributions from the different partners supporting Jackie and Simon.

The campaign has already attracted national attention, with The Scottish Sun reporting on Jackie and Simon's challenge and highlighting Highland Fuel Nutrition as their endurance fuel partner.

For a young independent Scottish endurance nutrition brand, we're incredibly excited to play our part.

The Road Starts Here

Everything ultimately builds towards Saturday 24 April 2027, when Jackie and Simon are due to take their places on the London Marathon start line.

But a marathon isn't fuelled on race morning.

It's fuelled through months of training. Through the early runs, the first long runs, the sessions where things don't quite work and the ones where everything finally clicks.

That's the part of the journey we're looking forward to being involved in.

We'll help Jackie and Simon understand endurance fuelling, give them access to the products they need, introduce them to our own gels as they become available and work with them to develop a strategy they can confidently take into London.

And we'll be sharing plenty of it along the way.

Jackie and Simon — welcome to Team HFN.