IT all started 21 years ago with an argument over who would be faster over a rugged cross country course - a runner on foot or a rider on horseback?

Since then the Llanwrtyd Wells Man versus Horse Marathon has grown into a unique sporting challenge, which attracts competitors from around the globe.

One of its biggest fans is Barnoldswick's Mark Sandamas, who has been involved with the event for the past decade, both promoting it and competing.

This year was by far his best event yet, finishing as the second placed runner overall and with just two horses and riders ahead of him.

He first read about the race in a running magazine when he was just getting interested in the sport, and was intrigued by its unique element. A public relations consultant, he contacted the race sponsors, William Hill, and soon found himself promoting the event as well as participating in it.

The gruelling 22-mile course takes competitors through the mid-Wales mountains, with around 6,000 feet of ascent across fields, on mountain tracks and moorland and through swollen streams. This year's event attracted 210 individual runners and 50 relay teams. No runner has yet beaten a horse and rider, but each year the gap is closing as the race - and the substantial prize money - attract more and more top athletes. Year on year the prize for any runner who can beat the lead horse rises by £1,000 so that this year, the 21st race, the prize stood at £21,000.

This year's winning runner was former Olympic cross-country skier, and now Bingley Harrier, Mark Croasdale. He covered the 22-mile course in two hours, 10 minutes and nine seconds (2:10:09), just a minute-and-a-half behind the winning horse, Royal Mikado, ridden by Heather Evans.

It was the closest the gap between horse and man has ever been, partly due to the heavy going underfoot. Croasdale, who hails from Lancaster, didn't go away empty handed for his troubles. He was pitched against Roama, the leading horse for the past two years, in a head to head challenge for the Screaming Lord Sutch Memorial Trophy and £1,000 prize. Croasdale won, beating the horse and its rider, J Gilmore, by over 12 minutes.

Screaming Lord Sutch was a long-time supporter of the event until his death last year, describing it as even madder than he was.

Mark Sandamas, who runs for Keighley and Craven AC, finished in 2:23:01, 13 minutes behind Croasdale and just 20 seconds behind Roama, the second-placed horse.

He explained that the horses and riders set off 15 minutes after the runners, purely for safety reasons, but it is a race against the clock between man and horse, with the runners given no time advantage. It is purely down to who can cover the course in the quickest time.

Runners can also compete in a relay event and both Croasdale and Sandamas ran the first leg as part of their respective relay teams. Croasdale's Crusaders won the relay event while Mark's Keighley and Craven team took second place. His team-mates were James Wadsworth, of Lothersdale, and Alfie Atkinson, of Keighley.

"It's one of my favourite events," said Mark, who has only run the full course once before but has competed as part of a relay team for the past five years.

"I love it - the atmosphere, the conditions and everything. It's unique to be running along and hear a horse galloping up behind you and the cry of 'horse coming through!', although that only happened to me once this year.

"This year the conditions were really wet. I've never run in so much mud and water in all my life. It's a great event. I'd go there year after year whether I'm running or not."

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