A CROFT action man has completed a gruelling 100-mile endurance race in Italy, beating his nearest competitor by more than two hours.

Fitness fanatic Charlie Sharpe crossed the finish line in 22 hours and 13 minutes in the Friuli region of north east Italy.

The 25-year-old was the only British runner to finish the race along with 85 other people. Czech Jakub Ridel came in second clocking up a time of 24 hours and 27 minutes.

Charlie, of Southworth Lane, said: "About half of the people didn’t make it to the end due to fatigue and injuries. Some found their bodies weren’t quite up to it and lot of people had mentally had enough.

"There were plenty of times when it was very hard. You just have to have that goal in sight.

"There was a mountain that you had to go up and it took me about hour and 40 minutes to cover a mile and a half. I was pulling at the grass and anything I could grab at because it was incredibly steep.

"I ended up laughing because it seemed so ridiculous.

"The biggest thing for me was in the last few hundred metres coming into the town and everybody was out there cheering and clapping and celebrating as I was coming to the finish. It gave me goosebumps."

Charlie only started running in 2010 and actually used to struggle with the 800m race at high school.

He added: "I heard about a race running across the desert and doing a marathon each day and I decided it would be an amazing lifetime achievement

"I did it and before I knew it I was entering races like that every weekend."

Now the former Culcheth Primary School only takes a day off from running once every 10 days and covers about 90 miles on an average week.

Charlie's routine involves jumping out of bed at 5 am to run or cycle six miles to work and then he exercises with his coaching business clients.

He is also an indoor rock climber and runs the equivalent of a marathon most weekends.

Charlie said: "I just have a passion for running and love the buzz you get afterwards. Once you get started you get hooked "