The Oak-sponsored inaugural Trail Monkey Double Top Ultra-Marathon took place on Saturday 4 May with more than 120 runners taking on the 40 mile challenge.

James Manners pushed himself through the pain barrier to win first place in 6 hours 25 minutes with the rest of the heroic ultra-marathon runners all coming in under 11 hours. Sarah Hindle was the first female to come in at an impressive 7 hours 32 minutes and the ladies’ relay winners Jade Wright and Kathy Gillies completed the course in 8 hours 1 minute. The men’s relay winners Andrew Boleat and Justin Spanswick finished in 6 hours 26 minutes and the mixed relay team winners Sam Lee and Jon Silvester finished in 6 hours 46 minutes.

The route covered the gnarly but stunning northern cliff paths of Jersey and the runners battled all the elements: wind, rain, sleet and later sunshine with an impressive 7000ft of climbing (Note that Ben Nevis has only 4,411ft of ascent!)

Paul Burrows, event director said “It was great to see so many first time ultra-marathon runners, seasoned ultra-runners as well as people taking on the challenge of their first 20 mile race.

A massive thank you goes to Oak for its sponsorship of the event and assistance with race pack distribution and the organisation.