The finish line of the Paris Marathon will be just the start of the road for three runners from Hastings on Sunday.

While everyone else dreams of a cold drink and a hot bath after 26 gruelling miles around the streets of the French capital, Brian Kirkdale, Peter Wheeler and Paul Cooper have no such comforts to look forward to.

Instead the three members of the Hastings Runners club will carry on at the end of the race for another four miles before settling down to sleep on the floor of a church.

The next day the trio will get up and do it all over again as they attempt to run eight marathons in eight days, culminating in the London Marathon a week on Sunday.

It is only the second time the Run Paris to London race has been held. In 2003 just five out of the 11 runners made it to the finish line in London, proving just how tough the 230-mile challenge is.

Kirkdale, 46, said: "This will be the hardest thing I have ever done because it is an unknown challenge. None of us have much of an idea what to expect.

"It will be tough but I hope that if I have prepared right then I will have the tenacity to see it through to the end. I can guarantee there are going to be times during the eight days when you want to give up but I think I have got the mental strength to carry me through.

"We are staying in a school, a youth hostel and sleeping on a church hall floor and some of these places do not have showers so it is going to be hard to get up each morning and run another marathon.

"Thinking about crossing the finish line will keep me going. I have set myself a goal and I am determined to achieve it. It is me against 230 miles. Nobody else will get me there, it is all down to me."

The trio are are no strangers to endurance races. Kirkdale and Wheeler ran three marathons in three days four years ago while Wheeler and Cooper successfully completed the 150-mile Marathon Des Sable across the Sahara Desert in 2003.

However, they admit the distances involved in the Run Paris to London event are greater than anything they have ever attempted and will push them to the very limits.

After completing the Paris Marathon they must cover the 108 miles to Dieppe over the next four days. They then cross by ferry to Newhaven - where they will be greeted by supporters from Hastings Runners -before making their way via Lingfield to the start line of the London Marathon a week on Sunday.

If they make it that far there is just the small matter of the 26 miles from Blackheath to The Mall before they can finally take a well-earned rest.

Wheeler, 49, said: "It is a tremendous mental challenge as well as a physical one but I am confident I can do it. The secret will be to have a bottle of red wine and a croque monsieur every day to help us get through it."

Cooper, 52, added: "I've never failed to complete a race I have set out to do before and I don't intend to start now. The key will be to take it slowly each day because you've got to save your energy to be able to do it all over again the next day."

Brian Kirkdale is raising money for Friends of Lisiecki Homes in Poland and Comrades of Children Overseas. To sponsor him go to kirkdale.members.beeb.net.