Ultra runner Kristian Morgan has set a new record time for running the 630-mile South West Coast Path, the UK’s longest National Trail.
Kristian completed the route from Poole Harbour (Dorest) to Minehead (Somerset) in a time of 10 days, 12 hours and 6 mins (to be confirmed). His time beats the former record, set in 2016 by Damian Hall, by just over three hours.
Prior to that it was held by Mark Berry, who ran it in 11 days 8 hours and 15 mins.
Kristian, a 43-year-old London-based running coach, was supported by family and friends in his challenge. He said: “It was a real team effort to break Damian’s record and I feel privileged to have had the support of my mother, Sharon Mullan, throughout the attempt.
“At times I didn’t think it was possible to break the record but there were other times that I forgot about it and was just enjoying some of the best trail running of my life.
“The weather was mixed. The first four days it was hot and sunny and then towards the end I was racing against a storm that was coming in.
“It was a truly-epic, life-changing adventure.”
Damian, who himself recently set a record time of 61 hours, 35 mins 15 secs for running Great Britain’s oldest National Trail, the 268-mile Pennine Way, said: “Huge congratulations to Kristian on a really gutsy performance on the South West Coast Path. I always knew there was a big soft spot in my record where I ran a couple of lower-mileage days and he exploited that excellently.
“I’m semi happy to pass my record on! Obviously no-one enjoys having their record beaten, I won’t lie. But it was exciting to follow his progress and I’m just sad I couldn’t get down there to join him for a bit of it.”
* Kristian’s running kit arsenal for the South West Coast Path included the TRAILROC G 280 shoes with Graphene-Grip and super-versatile RACE ULTRA PRO 2-IN-1 VEST. He said: “I kept telling myself how lucky I was not to have any blisters, and I put this down to wearing these shoes. No black toenails either! They were very comfortable and I really liked the padded tongue.”
* Follow Kristian on Instagram.
