The Willsworthy Range, site of one of the overnight camps. Photo: Martin Bodman, CC-BY-SA-2.0

Original Mountain Marathon favourites Steve Birkinshaw and Jethro Lennox were beaten into second place by brothers Andy and Joe Symonds, who finished four minutes ahead of last year’s winners in the elite category.

The race visited Dartmoor for the second time in its history and was blessed with clear skies on Saturday, with more traditional wind, low cloud and rain greeting the competitors today, Sunday.

Birkinshaw and Lennox held the lead overnight by more than 11 minutes but were overtaken by the Symonds brothers who made up 15 minutes on the second day.

Angela Mudge and her running partner Brendon Bolland were the first mixed team home, in an impressive fourth place overall in an aggregate time of 12 hours dead.

First all-women team to finish was Heather Dawe and Andrea Priestley in 40th place.

Of the 2,704 who started the event, 2,442 completed their respective courses, with runners coming from as far away as Sweden, Denmark and Holland. Others flew in from serving in Afghanistan and Iraq to tackle the marathon, with elite class runners covering the distance of two conventional marathons over the moors and tors of Dartmoor.

Overnight camps were at Peek Hill Farm near Yelverton, for elite and long score competitors with others on the open moor at Willsworthy range.