AFTER months of planning and training in mountain running Jon Sharples, a member of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers, set off on an epic journey involving 48 miles of running; 30 Lakeland summits totalling 16,000 feet of climbing and descending.

The route for the Joss Naylor Chall-enge starts at Pooley Bridge at the northern tip of Ullswater and finishes at Greendale Bridge on the western shores of Wast Water.

Joss Naylor MBE, now in his 70s, is and has been a renowned fell runner and Lakeland farmer throughout many years.

In 1990 Joss set out to complete the above course at the age of 54 years with the aim of completing the task in under 12 hours.

Joss was successful – completing it in 11 hours 30 minutes – and he threw down the challenge to any runner over 50 years of age to ‘have a go’. These days the challenge in time terms varies with separate male, female and age categories starting at 50 with five year bands.

Jon, 53, had his journey divided into four sections with different support teams running with him on each section.

The day started damp but improved as he progressed and fortunately it was neither too warm nor too cold, but the skies were generally clear and visibility good. After the first section Jon was around six minutes ahead of his schedule which was set at 11 hours 45 minutes.

Jon eventually finished with a time of 11 hours 34 minutes, 11 minutes ahead of his own schedule and only four minutes behind Joss’s famous mark.

Whilst Jon took this as a personal challenge he also decided to seek to raise funds for MacMillan Nurses and he has collected around £300.