James McDiarmid: Meet the 'joggler' hoping to run a sub-three hour marathon

When James combined his love of juggling and running he unlocked a whole new world of challenges - and enjoyment

Jan 23, 2025

James McDiarmid, who goes by the name ‘Jamie the Joggler,’ has his eyes on sub-three hour marathon

A marathon is hard. Completing 26.2 miles in a sub-three hour time is a distinctly tough proposition.

Clocking that time while juggling your way through the race? Seriously?

But that is exactly what James McDiarmid, aka Jamie the Joggler, is aiming to do.

The children’s entertainer from the Scottish Highlands only started ‘joggling’ - the act of running while juggling - around a year-and-a-half ago, but has already finished three marathons with an incredible best time of three hours 19 minutes to his name.

Along the way, he has found combining his twin passions of running and juggling have brought him a joy he didn’t always think he would find in the sport.

How Lord HopScotch became a runner:

Using the moniker Lord Hopscotch, James McDiarmid runs a successful entertainment business

James describes his younger self as “never a very athletic person” and he took up the juggling side of things long before running.

He first took up the activity more than a decade ago while at university. After deciding he needed a challenge to “engage my brain cells,” he moved on to magic shows and circus workshops.

These days he runs a family-led entertainment business, HopScotch Magic, which offers everything from juggling, magic tricks and ballooning to stilt walking.

James, otherwise known as Lord HopScotch, said: “I very much enjoy what I do. My mum worked in a nursery, my dad works in a high school.

“We've always been a very family-friendly, child-friendly orientated family. That helps the whole business.”

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Running would come later and was inspired by his father’s weight loss journey. For most of his life James was nervous about people seeing him run, but he was inspired by his dad who would run on the shores of Loch Ness near to the family home of Drumnadrochit in the Scottish Highlands.

“I didn't want people to see me sweating and making a bit of a spectacle of myself,” James told the Running Tales Podcast. “Now, I've gone to completely the other end where I've completely embraced it and I’m nothing but a spectacle.”

He said watching his father’s fitness journey had been inspirational: “Running was something I never really thought I'd be into. I've never been very athletic. I've never been very into sports in general.

“But I was watching the weight fall off him. He seemed to be having a great time and it was boosting his mental health.

“I thought, genetically, if he can do that, then I should be able to give it a try.”

His first foray into the world of running didn’t go well, with the treadmill at his local gym providing little inspiration.

“I absolutely hated it,” he said, “I could not stand the treadmill, looking at just a blank brick wall.

“I finally worked up the courage to get outside and try running in the wild. And I loved it. I haven't looked back.”

Becoming Jamie the Joggler:

James had been running for around four years before he decided to add juggling into the equation.

“I’d always thought it would be really fun to try as a novelty,” he said.

The final push came when he decided to run with a friend who had been doing Couch to 5k. James’ running had generally involved longer distances - “the 5k, to me, always seemed to be not worth the washing at the end of the day” - but he decided to run a parkrun in Edinburgh with his friend.

He told Running Tales: “I went along and thought, ‘I'll take the balls with me’. The idea was that it would give me a little bit of new motivation.

“And it was great fun. It was just so enjoyable. I dropped the balls maybe 15, 20 times while running round, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.

“I wasn't focusing too much on my speed, which meant I could just take a step back and really enjoy the run.

“I was nervous. I really was. I didn't know how people would react. I didn't know if it's something that parkrun would allow - for safety's sake.

“And I was really worried that if I stayed too far in the middle or at the back, I'd bang into people, drop the balls and then I'd sabotage other people's times.

“But everyone was so welcoming. It was really good fun. I got to chat with people at the end.

“It was taking two different aspects of my life and merging them together into something completely new. And it was great, I really enjoyed it.”

Inspired, James immediately logged-on to his computer when he got home from parkrun, searching for a potential community of running jugglers.

“Sure enough there is a joggling community,” he said. “That was about a year-and-a-half ago now.

“Since I started my joggling adventure, I would say 90% of my runs have been joggling. I’ve found a great community - there’s actually about 780-something jogglers worldwide across 32 different nationalities.”

How being ‘a little bit silly’ has made James a better runner:

You can listen to our podcast with James McDiarmid by searching for the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network on Apple, Spotify and a host of other platforms

Before long, parkrun had turned into 10k and then half-marathons. Eventually James was taking part in full marathons.

He’s even hopeful he could work his way up to joggling an ultra distance in the future, with the Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra, a 57-mile jaunt along the canal between the two cities, top of his wish-list.

James told Running Tales his transition to joggler provided extra focus to his running, allowing him to take a step back and really enjoy the sport.

He said he found joggling “meditative’ and it added an extra social aspect to his running: “I became much more conversational with people and it was really nice to give them something else to focus on.

“I became almost an aspect of entertainment during the run for them - ‘come on guys, don't get overtaken by the juggler. If you think you've got it hard, just look at me’.

“I got to meet such lovely people, just by chatting with them. I felt it brought me that little bit more confidence I have when I'm performing that I wouldn't normally have when I'm running a race because I'd be so focused on just getting that time.”

“You get a lot of the same sort of comments, with people saying, ‘oh, I couldn't even do that standing still’, or ‘I thought I was doing really well, then you caught me’,” he added.

“It's all very tongue in cheek. Quite a few people say that if they want a better time than me, all they have to do is knock the balls out of my hands. Quite honestly, they're not wrong.

“Last year, I was doing a half-marathon and I got about 10-feet from the finish line and dropped all three balls. But you just laugh it off because with something like this, if you are taking it very seriously it defeats the purpose.

“If I was going around with a serious pace, driving for time and really just pushing my way up to the front runners, I don't think there'd be any purpose in it.

“It wouldn't really serve the point that you're taking something so serious as running and your own physical health and making it a little bit silly.”

Even though family members have suggested he could run faster without the balls, James is convinced juggling has helped him to develop as a runner and push himself harder in training.

He has now started working with a coach, taking part in interval training sessions and learning about everything from tapering to nutrition.

It is those changes to his running regime which James hopes will push him towards that three-hour marathon target.

But while he is serious about improving as an athlete, the number one goal remains finding enjoyment through joggling.

“I was worried that if I decided to sign up with a coach or get a training plan it would just suck the fun of the running for me,” he said.

“I'm not a massively competitive guy. I'm never going to be an elite. I'm not going to break any world records but to be able to say I'm pushing myself to get better, it makes me really happy with myself.

“By deciding to go with a coach, I’ve committed to dedicating some time to this, to see what happens. If it bears fruit, fantastic. If it doesn't, no harm, no foul, I'll just go back to running.

“Either way, I'm still getting to do two things that I enjoy.”

The world of joggling - from the super fast to those who run every day:

One thing that has struck James since his move into the running and juggling realm is the support he has received from the joggling community.

He said: “There's a few people who were jugglers first, like myself, who then became runners.

“And there's some people who were runners who then became jugglers. The gentleman who holds the world record for a marathon distance is a man named Michal Kapral, who did it in two hours 50.

“He's obscenely fast, juggling three balls. Then there's another gentleman who's joggled every single day for something like 3,000 days in a row.

“So, everyone's just doing it for their absolute own reason. It's a very bizarre and niche sport, but it is one of these things that I feel anyone can try and can get involved with.”

But do jogglers get competitive if they are in the same race?

“Personally, I do,” James said. “I like to have that little bit of extra drive because it's something I never thought I'd be doing.

“I think having that friendly competition, just that idea that I'm going to try and catch someone gives me an extra burst of speed and something else to focus on.

“But it's very light hearted and we're all completely rooting for each other and supporting each other through it.”

Joggling 26.2-miles in three hours may be hard, but first and foremost for James McDiarmid having a crack at it will be fun.

Listen to James on the Running Tales Podcast:

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