TORN muscles, flooded tracks and a near brush with hypothermia did not prevent Liskeard runners Oli Jones and Dr Chris Gilbert from reaching the finish line of a 100-mile ultra marathon around Cornwall's coastal paths at the weekend.

Oli, a teacher at Burraton Primary School, Saltash, undertook the epic endurance race in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

He said: 'It was the pinnacle of all the running I've done so far, and for a good cause.'

Oli and Chris, who belong to East Cornwall Harriers, were placed 20th and 21st respectively in the race which started in Porthleven and went around Land's End before finishing at Watergate Bay near Newquay.

Thirty of the 75 athletes from an international line-up who started the event dropped out along the way.

The Endurancelife Ultra Trail South West with its night navigation, steep cliff paths and boulder-strewn terrain is widely considered to be one of the toughest courses in the world.

'The night-time section of the race is what we feared most and rightly so,' said Oli.

'It was tough following the trail, missing obstacles and we got horribly lost at Sennen spending over 30 minutes looking for the right trail up to the coastal path.

'On another occasion, we took the wrong path and only realised after half a mile that we had to backtrack, which dented our spirits.'

Blisters

Having originally planned to run only the night section of the race together, Oli and Chris, a GP in Liskeard, decided to stick together for the whole of the course.

'We realised we needed each other – we needed to make the decisions together,' said Oli. As dawn and the halfway point of the run approached, both Oli and Chris began to feel the physical toll of the distance on their bodies.

'The rest of the race saw support crew cheer us up with encouragement and that gave us the determination to continue despite the pain of blisters and sore calf muscles and ankles,' said Oli.  

Several children from Burraton went to the coast with their families to support Oli at checkpoints along the way. The children included Freyja Newman, the Year 5 pupil who inspired Oli to take on the challenge.

One parent of a pupil at the school ran alongside Oli and Chris for a while. And their friend Richard Pollard, of Liskeard, in effect ran the equivalent of more than a marathon himself by joining the pair to run the final 30 miles.

Oli, who suffered torn calf muscles, was also passed messages of support in envelopes to buoy up his spirits. With the end in sight there were yet more trials ahead – as the pair had to navigate flooded tracks, as well as the busy streets of a Saturday evening in Newquay.

'At Perranporth we had 15 miles left and we thought we had cracked it and were going to have an easy run to the finish,' Oli continued. 'We were wrong as the weather started to turn nasty and heavy, torrential rain fell, soaking us and making us really cold, and dangerously so. We had to take a three-mile diversion to cross the Gannel estuary due to the high tide.

Jokes

'At Newquay our last effort was to pass through the town after having run 95-plus miles. Lots of people looked at us and made a few jokes. Some were running along behind us and saying "here come the miners" because we were so muddy.'

Oli added: 'Without the incredible support, messages and sponsorship, I would have given up.'

He is now more than halfway towards his fundraising target of £2,012.

Chris was running in aid of Cancer Research and has raised in the region of £2,000 in sponsorship. He said the event was his biggest challenge so far.