Just to note that Mike Hartley covered the route at 12.5 m/m pace with just 1 hr 17mins rest (ie. a moving pace of 12.1 m/m)
He would have been walking the ascents and so moving faster than his average on the descents. Roughly 5mph at a time when he would easily have been doing more than 10 mph on the road in a 10 mile race. The country don't half slow you down though.
I hear he suffers from hip/knee/leg problems, still walking but hasn't run for some time. Same thing happened to Mike Cudahey, double hip replacement. Good at the time, and what they did was right on the edge of hard extreme, but makes you wonder whether they would have done all that fast really high mileage stuff, if they had known the eventual consequences.
The answer most likely is - Yes they would!
Dave.