Mountain men from Jersey conquer 'insane' ultra-marathon - Jersey Evening Post
by Tom Innes · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Mountain men from Jersey conquer ‘insane’ ultra-marathon
by Tom Innes 7 August 20267 August 2026
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“IF I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.”
The punchline to a very old Irish joke about a tourist asking a farmer the way to Dublin could equally be applied to those preparing for a mountain ultra-marathon race: Jersey might not be the ideal training base.
But in spite of the difficulty of getting ready for high altitude – peaking at almost 4,000 metres – and punishing climbs totalling 10,500m across five days – two Islanders were among a select group of competitors in the Mountain Ultra staged in the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan.
With 20 participants out of the field of 28 completing the 200-kilometre course in times ranging from 37 to 68 hours, Rob Campbell had a storming last leg to be ninth across the line in just over 49 hours, while Peter Wright finished six places and seven hours behind his fellow Jerseyman.
The event was the second such ultra-marathon for Mr Campbell (36) after he crossed the Atacama Desert in Chile last year, a feat which he told the JEP caused him to “fall in love” with the multi-day format.
“It’s a real challenge – you have to carry everything, except water, and manage the heat, the altitude, the climbs, the sun and all your fuelling,” he said. “That was my first dance, and it left me wanting to push myself and see what I can do in different environments.
“I love the mountains, and Kyrgyzstan looked amazing, although it wasn’t very easy to prepare for a race like this in Jersey – you can’t really recreate the altitude and the elevation.”
Gradients on the course reached 25% at their most extreme, while half of the route for the penultimate stage was at an altitude of 3,000m or higher.
Mr Campbell said he had started the race with a backpack weighing just over ten kilograms, plus an additional two litres of water, with all the competitors having to contend with a day-time temperature peaking at over 30°C but plummeting to around 5°C overnight, when the runners slept in yurts before rising before dawn to take on fuel for their next leg.
Unlike the relative novice status of his fellow Islander, Mr Wright (53) has carved a reputation as something of a junkie for extreme challenges, completing “ultras” in locations including the Amazon, the Sahara and the Arctic Circle, seven Ironman events in seven days in Jersey and rowing across the Atlantic as part of a two-man crew.
“I hadn’t met Pete before, but I knew of him as a bit of a local legend and we had mutual connections,” Mr Campbell said. “We met for a coffee before we set off and he was a massive help for me.”
Although the event was a race, there was a good spirit between the competitors. Both men ran in groups during some stages of the race, while for the final stage Mr Wright was among a group of five who finished the 48-km leg as darkness fell, having started more than 15 hours earlier, just before sunrise.
“Days four and five were particularly tough – it was insanely hot and we needed 10 or 15 minutes to cool down at every check point,” Mr Wright said. “We had to use satellite files to navigate in order not to take the wrong route, and filter our water, and then at night it got pretty cold.”
Mountain men
Rob Campbell
- Age: 36
- School: Victoria College
- Profession: advisor at pWc
Peter Wright
- Age: 53
- School: Corfe Hills, Dorset
- Profession: chief finance officer, Prosperity 24/7
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