Ian Griffin, a Warrant Officer with the Royal Artillery, ran both the Paris Marathon and the Three Peaks Challenge in Yorkshire.

The 38-year-old from Market Weighton wanted a new challenge after competing in the London and Berlin marathons in the past and was raising money for the Forces Children’s Trust.

Mr Griffin completed the Paris Marathon only slightly over his target time of three hours and 40 minutes, despite the chilly temperature.

He said: “Despite the madness and chaos of French organisation, I somehow made it to the start line, about 20,000 people behind where I was meant to start. I then had to try and pass each one of these, to keep my running pace going, but this unfortunately slowed me down considerably, so instead of doing 26 miles I actually ran around 28.

“The snow stayed away until the end of the race. I completed the race in a time of three hours and 42 minutes, with an overall finish position of 10,226 and age group finish of 4,408.

“It was then rest in readiness for the next challenge.”

The next challenge was the Three Peaks, Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent, involving 26 miles of rugged country and climbing 1,600 metres. The traditional time for the course is 12 hours. Mr Griffin completed it in six hours, 30 minutes and said climbing Ingleborough was the hardest part.

He said: “This is the steepest and I felt every one of the 723 metres to the top. This stretch has acquired the name of the Devil’s Staircase and I can understand why.”

He celebrated completing both challenges with a large mug of tea in the Pen-y-Ghent cafe with his back-up team.

Mr Griffin thanked RACPD for sponsoring the event.