ONE of the toughest ever running races was launched beneath the Eildons on Friday.

The Borders Three Peaks Ultra, which is part of the Jedburgh Running Festival, will be held on the last Sunday in October.

Covering 38 miles of Borders countryside, as well as all three Eildon Hills, the race is expected to attract some of the country's best ultra distance athletes.

And amongst them will be the Border Telegraph's Ally McGilvray, who only recently took up athletics. Ally said: "This will be around four times further than I've ever run before but I'm looking forward to the challenge."

This November's event will be the tenth staging of the hugely popular Jedburgh Running Festival, which now attracts over 1,000 athletes every year to take part in the half marathon as well as the accompanying 10k and wheelchair races.

Online entries for all of the Jedburgh Running Festival races are available at http://www.jedburghhalfmarathon.org.uk/