IT’S Huddersfield versus Bradford in the battle of the marathon runners.

Birkby’s Ian Conroy lines up against his Bradford-based colleague Wayne Firth for this year’s Berlin Marathon.

And not only are the BT duo preparing to race each other, they also want to raise more than each other for Childline.

Now they are rallying their home towns to help outdo the other.

Ian, 41, said: “It’s all a bit of friendly rivalry but I’m hoping Huddersfield will back me more than Bradford will back Wayne.”

Ian, a team manager at BT, is in training for his second marathon.

Earlier this year he completed the London Marathon.

He and Wayne, 30, plus around 20 of his colleagues raised £4,000 for Childline.

And now they are hoping their colleagues and towns will back them again.

They will take to the streets of Berlin on Sunday, September 20, for the 26-mile race.

Ian added: “I did my last big run at the weekend which was 19 miles.

“London this year was my first ever marathon – before that I’d been a novice runner just running to keep fit.

“But I got the bug, really.

“It was hard then and I’m expecting Berlin to be hard again.

“The last mile or so was the most difficult but the crowd and the atmosphere get you through it and I hope it’ll be the same in Berlin too.

“I thought London was the challenge of a lifetime and can’t believe I’m doing it again.

“But it’s for a great cause.

“BT do a lot for Childline and myself and Wayne wanted to raise money for them again.

“We’re both competitive and we thought we’d do Huddersfield versus Bradford this time.”

As well as raising money through running, the duo are also hosting several fundraisers in pubs local to them.

Ian’s will be at the Wappy Springs Pub at Lindley Moor which is holding a ‘guess Ian’s finish time’ sweepstake until the day of the race.

Also up for grabs is a Giants Wembley shirt signed by the whole team. They are also raffling Huddersfield Town tickets among other prizes.

Visit www.justgving.com/hd1 to support Ian.