ADAM 'Tango' Holland, who grew up in the Tavistock area, was awarded life membership of Tavistock Athletic Club in 2017. He excels at all distances of running, from 1-mile to ultra-marathons, but is particularly drawn to challenges at the full marathon distance (26.2 miles).

Recently, he travelled to Italy to take part in an extraordinary feat of endurance. Most marathon runners will take a least a couple of weeks off running after completing a race of that distance.

But, for the sixth year, Adam entered the 'Lake Orta 10 marathons in 10 days' challenge, with his ordeal starting on 3rd August.

It's hard to put into words how significant his achievement was; running in temperatures from 25degC up to 38degC, he not only completed his 10 marathons in so many days, he finished every one of those races in under three hours - his average time was 2hr 55min 40s - and he won every one of those races.

Adam holds the world record for the fastest 10 marathons in 10 days and has, in fact, now run 21 10-in-10-day marathon challenges since 2007 - seven of which were at the Lake Orta event.

Back in 2010, at the age of 23, he ran his 100th marathon at the Eden Project, breaking another world record for the youngest person to run 100 marathons. He has now run 552 marathons and ultra-marathons, winning around 300 of those, and that feat puts him fourth in the world and the best of anyone in the United Kingdom.

Adam said "I met my main goal, which was to run under 3hrs every day. I know a few people were expecting me to have a go at beating my world record total time, but I hadn't prepared for it over the last two weeks and, mentally, wasn't ready for it. I really enjoyed the hospitality that was part of this trip - the evening trips, the Italian food, exploring the sights and even doing some dancing! I'm trying to persuade more runners to join me next year."