John Lawton, a 62-year-old runner who went missing in early April during a race on Mount Taygetus in the Peloponnese, was laid to rest in his hometown of Alsager, Cheshire, in England on Monday after his body was discovered on August 14 by two walkers.

A Greek coroner found that Lawton died instantly after falling into a 200-meter ravine when he strayed off course in the final leg of the Taygetus Challenge on April 8.

Rescue workers from Greece and the United Kingdom conducted extensive searches for the missing marathon runner until his body was found by chance by two walkers 18 weeks later.

The father-of-two had been wearing a tracking device that revealed he had taken a wrong turn and ended up three hours in the opposite direction of the finish line, when he tumbled head-first into the ravine where he was later discovered.

"He loved the freedom and beauty of the countryside and loved nothing more than putting his trainers on and getting out there,» his wife Lynda was quoted by local media as saying at the funeral service.

John Lawton was a member of Sandbach Striders club and had been running for 12 years.