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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Siobhan Macdonald

Martin Compston once competed in a marathon to get to a pub showing a Celtic game

Martin Compston once took part in the LA marathon in a bid to get to the only pub showing the Celtic game.

Speaking on his new podcast, Restless Natives, the Line of Duty actor admitted he only took part in the run as it was the only way to get to the pub. The Greenock-born actor recalled phoning his pal Outlaw King star Tony Curran the night before the cup final game against Rangers to discuss their plans to find out about the race.

He explained: “I phoned him on the Friday and asked what time we were going to meet for pre-drinks and he says ‘mate, look, the LA Marathon is on this weekend, all the roads are shut, you need to start planning how you are going to get there now’. I was looking and there was just no way to get to this pub.”

Not letting the marathon ruin his football plans, the 38-year-old actor realised the run started near a pal's house and ended near the pub he was planning to visit slap bang in the middle.

He said: “I thought, I’ll go up there, I’ll start the run at the Dodger’s stadium, I’ll run down, stop at the pub, watch the game and then run home. That was the logistics of it.”

Martin Compston chats with Gordon Strachan at the Celtic match (Reuters)

However, around the halfway mark the Our House actor was 13 miles in when he reached the pub and couldn't give up on the marathon. He added: “I went to leave to go to the pub to watch the game and the guy said, if you leave, your time is disqualified and you don’t get your medal.

"When you’ve ran about 13 or 14 miles, Celtic win a lot of trophies so I knew we’d be back, even though we did get beat that game, so I just ran and finished it.”

Martin ended up finishing the marathon in an impressive time of less than four hours, and was chuffed with himself despite missing the big game. However, the star ended up in so much pain as a result of the marathon he had to cancel an audition the following day as it was up three flights of stairs.

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