WHILE the spotlight was on the London Marathon at the weekend, Lucy and Karen Skye of Okehampton Running Club were taking part in the Exmoor Endurancelife Marathon in North Devon.

One of a nationwide series the event is graded 'extreme' and is considered by the organisers to be the toughest one of them all, the average time taken to complete being nearly six hours.

The route ascends over 5,250 feet covering a wide variety of terrain with stiff climbs, long descents, dizzying cliffs with unsurpassed views of the coastline, open moorland and thickly wooded coombes.

Lucy and Karen relish a challenge and are no strangers to fell running. They ran together to complete the gruelling course in 5 hours 53 minutes 34 seconds declaring it to be 'the hardest race we have ever done!'

Mervyn Rice along with several members of his family took part in the half marathon and 10k races at the same event.

Merv completed the half in 2.21.27. His daughter, Jenny, also ran the half marathon distance finishing in 2.05.28 with her partner, Paul Scully finishing in 2.02.19.

These two are training for an Ironman event in June. Merv's wife, Susie, ran the 10k distance in 1.41.16 taking over eight minutes off her time in the same race last year.