Damian Hall has broken the 30-year-old Wainwright's Coast to Coast record held by Mike Hartley since 1991. According to his Open Tracking, he ran the route in a time of 39 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds (TBC), beating Hartley's time of 39 hours, 36 minutes, and 52 seconds.

Starting at St Bees in the western Lakes, the 185-mile route takes in 28,000ft of ascent as it traverses the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, and North York Moors before finishing at Robin Hood's Bay. Damian was supported by a small team of friends who paced him and provided much needed road support. As with his Pennine Way record last year, he was collecting litter along the route.

The 45-year-old set off at 6am on Tuesday morning and set a blistering pace through the Lake District, arriving at Patterdale over an hour and a half up on schedule. Despite challenging cold and windy weather, after 12 hours he was two hours up on schedule.

Between 4am and 5am the following morning, Damian crossed over the A1 and began the final stretch through the North York Moors, munching chips to keep him going. Towards the end, lack of sleep and the accumulative affect of bad weather throughout took a toll.

Although he was able to maintain a distance ahead of Hartley's record pace, he was losing time for the last few hours and eventually falling back on his initial schedule, leading to a nail-biting finish. He finished an unconfirmed 18 minutes and 33 seconds behind the schedule he set himself and beat Hartley's record by 18 minutes.

Alfred Wainwright created the Coast-to-Coast route in 1973 and it has subsequently become one of the country's most popular long-distance trails. Designed to be completed west to east, Wainwright noted: 'you are best doing the walk with the prevailing wind at your backs.'

During last year's rush for records and fastest known times, Damian broke both the week-old Pennine Way record (which was taken back by John Kelly last week) and the South Wales Traverse Record.