British star Damian Hall showed why he was the pre-race favourite as he smashed the course record when winning the Northern Traverse.
Hall is the current coast-to-coast record holder for the Wainwright route, with his time of 39 hours, 18 minutes, and 40 seconds which he set in 2021 when he beat the previous mark which had stood for 30 years.
His target for the Northern Traverse was Kim Collison’s 44 hours and 24 minutes – here’s how it all panned out.
Always ahead of schedule
With dry and sunny weather across the north of the UK for much of the last few weeks, conditions were near perfect for all the runners when they set off from St Bees on the west coast on Saturday morning.
Indeed the high-pressure front contributed to 2025 being a record-breaking year for the Traverse Series, with five course records shattered across the Northern, Dales, and Moors Traverses.
While the weather may have appeared ideal for running, participants still faced significant challenges as temperatures swung dramatically from +20°C during the day to -3°C overnight but the men’s event turned into a one-person show as Hall moved ahead of the record time early on.
Hall, who had a smooth build-up and didn’t race this year’s Barkley Marathons last month but went incredibly close to joining Jasmin Paris as a finisher in 2024, enjoyed blue skies and sunshine for much of the way on the non-stop 300km endurance race which takes in three National parks – the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire Moors.
In the early hours of Monday morning Hall reached Robin Hood’s Bay after 42 hours, 56 minutes and 50 seconds and the record was his.
The race victory too – and by some margin, with James Chapman crossing the line in second just over four-and-a-half hours later. David Hanna made it an all-British podium by taking third.
Celebration tea
In a novel – but highly appropriate – finale, tea-loving Hall was presented not only with his medal at the finish by race director Shane Ohly, but also a cup of tea!
“It’s a long way to run for a cup of tea, my body is angry but that was cracking!” was Hall’s immediate reaction.
And it didn’t take long for previous record holder Collison to congratulate him on Instagram.
Collison wrote: “Great effort @ultra_damo 🙌😀” to which Hall replied, in reference to the course record symbol on the live tracker: “@kimcollison You chased me the whole way, you ruddy git.”
All very British!
2025 Northern Traverse Results – Saturday April 5, 168 miles / 300km
MEN
- Damian Hall (GBR) – 42:56:50
- James Chapman (GBR) – 47:29:04
- David Hanna (GBR) – 52:07:13
