These races are hard. It is like running two back to back marathons and then some, with over 8,800 foot of ascent thrown in for good measure. This year, the race was run in the reverse order which made it even harder than usual, as all the climbs come in the second half.
Gary Bradley finished the race in 11:47:53 in 113th positions. This time was slower than that which he achieved last year and he puts this down to the route reversal. This is a pretty good achievement when you consider that 371 runners set off on this race and only 329 of them made it to the finish line.