ROB DOUGLAS kick started Jersey’s Greatest Race on Earth bid with a fast 3 hr 27 min run in the Nairobi marathon at the weekend.

Douglas finished 350th out of 4,500 runners on a sun-baked course at 1800m altitude.

He was running the first of four marathons in the Standard Chartered series for the Island squad and afterwards told the JEP: ‘The race was amazing – it’s so hard to explain just how hard it was.

We are at 1800m and the first 10k was straight up hill – the rest wasn’t any easier, also it was 28C at the finish.

‘The altitude makes it feel like someone is sitting on your chest although the locals made it look so easy.

My time was six minutes quicker than last year although I was hampered by stomach cramps over the last 12k.

But it’s been a great experience.’ Simon Stratford from the bank’s Jersey staff was running in the half marathon and crossed the line in 1 hr 35 min to come in 749th out of 4,000.

Added Douglas: ‘We both acquitted ourselves very well, Simon ran a fantastic 1.50 and that will be very hard for the other Standard Chartered teams to beat.

‘We spoke to an Aussie runner, who is an Olympic athlete, and he said it was the toughest race he’s ever done – it’s certainly the hardest of the four GROE runs.’ The Greatest Race on Earth is the world’s only marathon relay with four runners from 30 teams from around the globe combining their times and hoping to beat last year’s winning time of 9 hr 11 min 32 sec.

Maria de Jesus will be the next Jersey runner when she competes in the Singapore race on 4 December, followed by John Cunningham in Mumbai on 15 January and Gerry Toudic in Hong Kong on 12 February.

Three of the bank’s Island’s staff will be running the half marathons at each venue – John Leonard in Singapore, Sophie Wheadon in Mumbai and Bill du Toit in Hong Kong.