WHILE 30,000 runners were pounding 26 miles around the streets of London on Sunday, Bolton's Dougie Tobutt did things a little differently.

He was running the Tresco Marathon - along with just 75 others.

Tresco isn't a supermarket but one of the Isles Of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, an island of beauty and tranquillity.

And the course is slightly different to the London Marathon too. The island isn't big enough for one course so instead the runners had to go seven and a half times around the island!

Dougie opted for the Tresco course because he wanted a new challenge and completed his 77th marathon but because of the hilly nature of the course it wasn't one of his fastest times.

All the competitors were running the marathon for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Last year 28 runners raised £23,000 between them. It is hoped to double that amount with more entrants participating this year.

Olympic and Commonwealth medal winners Dr Stephanie Cook, Kate Allenby and Georgina Harland cheered on the runners and awarded all the finishers with a medal certificate.

In the past, Tresco was a home to impoverished Monks and a haven for maundering pirates but, centuries of lawlessness eventually changed in 1834 when the Duchy of Cornwall leased Scilly to Augustus Smith a Hertfordshire squire. He channelled all of his energies and most of his finance into the island introducing farming reforms, established compulsory education and an ambitious building programme. But for all these reforms, Augustus will be remembered most of all for laying the foundations for Tresco Abbey and its internationally famous botanic gardens which contain thousands of species that are unable to grow outdoors anywhere else in Britain. But Tresco is one big garden unspoilt by cars, crowds or pollution. It's an island of white sands, crystal clear water, an abundance of bird life, unique variety of vegetation and by the way -- one pub.

Three generations later the island is now owned by Robert Dorrien Smith who succeeded his father in 1973. He opened what is the only garden heliport in the world and now Tresco is more accessible to its visitors.