But the locals did share in the honours when islander Sophie Fletcher, who had turned a few heads with her top-three finish amid good company at last month’s Guernsey Marathon, further underlined her staying power with a close women’s victory.
The annual ultra-marathon tasked 88 starters with a 36-mile lap of the island’s coastline and included the rugged glory of the cliff paths.
Cirencester’s Forbes, a 43-year-old father of four, made light work of it all as he came home at North Beach in 4hrs 27min. 32sec. for the fastest time ever run by anyone not named Tiaan Erwee.
From the 7am start at the Liberation Monument, he gapped the field without hesitation.
He reached the major checkpoint at Portelet in roughly 2-11 and benefited from a steady tailwind on the west coast, relatively cool conditions, the support of his family – including now locally-based parents – and his extensive ultra-running experience to get through the many hard yards that followed.
He admitted it had not been as easy as he had made it look.
‘Dead chuffed. I’ve been eyeing it up for the last year or so because my folks have moved to the island, so it’s a great opportunity to come to visit,’ he said.
‘I do quite a lot of ultras. It was a good opportunity to bring the kids over, do the race and see a bit of the island, because we’ve done a few of the coastal walks and stuff and it’s absolutely stunning.
‘It does batter you, that coastal section, all the ups and downs, and I was quite surprised by the number of steps.
‘I thought I could sustain a faster pace from there, and pushed a little bit hard, and my legs were a little bit cooked coming back on the flat.’
He praised not only the beauty of the south coast but the unique prizes provided by Guernsey Cans, adding: ‘Any trophy I do have, or medal, gets put in a box and shoved away.
‘My wife might actually accept this one going on the sides – this is one she might cherish, and actually use as well.’
Conditions had been changeable and he was the only runner to avoid the brief downpour around the noon-day gun.
Petr Cisarik took not only the domestic honours but second overall in 5-03-17, despite having suffered heavy training disruptions due to injury and withdrawn from the Guernsey Marathon as a result.
‘I went back and had two weeks running before this race,’ the Czech national said.
‘My plan was if I do around five hours, I’d be guaranteed a podium, based on the results for the last few years.’
He had settled quickly into a top-three position and, though a navigational mishap cost both him and his nearest rival early on, he worked his way into second down the west coast and maintained it to the line.
His talents lie not just in running but in his impressive all-round fitness, being a British age-group obstacle racing champion.
‘I’m more like an obstacle course racer, but there’s not any here so I have to go and travel to the UK,’ he added.
‘Next month I’ve got a 24-hour race – the World’s Toughest Mudder. Not sure how many miles I should aim for.’
A much more recent arrival to the island, Alex Grogan completed the podium in 5-12-35.
It was not until after the final checkpoint at Rousse that he overtook multiple All Terrain Challenge champion Ed Mason, who managed this drastic step-up in distance and held on for fourth in 5-19-20.
Niall McSwiggan (5-23-15), Shane Huxster (5-33-33) and Mickey Haimes (5-35-50) filled the next three positions in a race filled with personal bests.
Finishing 11th overall, Fletcher made her gap early into the race en route to taking women’s honours in 5-56-04.
She ended up having a relatively close finish with Jersey ultra-runner Natalie Hodge, who repeated last year’s second-place result and improved her best to 5-58-00, as both came in ahead of reigning champion Claire Moffat from Scotland.
Fletcher had lost some time to navigational detours but still did enough to claim her first local race victory – and in no small undertaking.
‘I’m just glad to finish it,’ she said.
‘I’m more glad I decided to take part, because I had fun.
‘I like it [the course]. Obviously I live in Guernsey, so I recognised it pretty well.
‘I ended up having an awesome day and I think more people should do it because it’s a brilliant event.’
Fletcher had made a big first impression in domestic distance running by posting 3-03-54 at the Guernsey Marathon, which would have been enough to win any previous edition of the event in its current organisation but happened to be eclipsed by two others on the day.
The 23-year-old now hopes to continue building and take on even longer races.
‘I’ve not done much organised running,’ she added.
‘I sort of just go for nice runs by myself outside and slowly built up the fitness to try joining some races.
‘Maybe I should try and run further. I’m not sure what my next target is but I do want to keep running because I really, really enjoy it.
‘I think it’s brilliant and everyone should run.’
Scotland’s Moffat had gone in having won the last two editions but on the day had to settle for third with her 6-10-45 clocking.
Next in, and second local woman, was Guernsey veteran Karen Farman with 6-28-17.
Somewhat further down the 82 finisher-list – for understandable reasons – was ‘Rhino Boy Chris’ Green.
The Save the Rhino ambassador conquered the 36-mile course in a 12kg, vision-obscuring costume resembling one of the rare mammals and arrived well before dinnertime in 8-54-45, placing 69th of 82 finishers.
‘It was so, so tough but also exhilarating,’ the Dorset resident said.
‘We had a little bit of rain but mostly ideal conditions, and the scenery was so spectacular.
‘I couldn’t wait to get to the top of the next hill.’
