TAVISTOCK marathon man Adam Holland notched up another athletic challenge last weekend, when he completed the gruelling 'Oner', described as 'the mother of all ultra trail runs.'

The race is a triple coastal marathon over the Jurassic coast path along Devon and Dorset — a 24-hour time limit is imposed on the runners, who self navigate the path along the coast, running through the day and night. Although it is described as a triple marathon, the distance covered by the athletes is more like 80 to 85 miles.

Adam started the event at noon on Saturday, and finally crossed the finishing line at 9.46am on Sunday — covering some 50 miles in one go.

He said: 'It was a completely different experience because it's navigational, and you are also running through the night in the dark.

'The furthest I've ever run before in one go was 35 miles, so I didn't really know what to expect. Just before I got to checkpoint 10, after 50 miles, I was nodding off, so I asked if I could stop for a quick sleep in one of the marshall's cars. I set my alarm for an hour, but slept right through it and woke up two hours later!'

Adam's overall time was 21 hours 46 minutes and he came in 12th — the winning time was 17hrs 47mins.

'I think I could have done it a lot faster if I hadn't overslept, and I also got lost,' said Adam.

Some 50 runners started the challenge — but a good quarter of them did not finish.

Adam said he would 'definitely' do the event again, although the hills were a real challenge.

'It was proper cross country, going over footbridges and stiles, but the scenery was lovely,' said Adam, who said he felt surprisingly fresh after the gruelling weekend's running.

He will need to be feeling fit, as his next event is the Milton Keynes Marathon this weekend.

'I've been asked to be the pace runner for a three hour race — hopefully I will be OK,'­ he said.