Dave, would it not be possible to set something similar for the C2C along the lines of distance covered and height gained and lost..? Unofficially of course...
Classes:
Supported as in Mike H's case
Fully self-Sufficient (ie. Geoff Bell's 5 day Pennine Way)inc.Acc+food
Part self-sufficient (ie. buying food enroute but using own tent/bivvy etc)
Accommodated (ie. no tent or bivvy used - as the 5 dayer you met last year where very little needs to be carried)

just a thought...

You say distance covered as opposed to various points being visited. The Bob Graham and Joss Naylor follow the rules of most Fell races where certain points, in those cases usually Summits and Passes, have to be visited. Any route in between is allowed.
A C2C route could easily be worked out following a certain criteria.
For example, if it was thought that in order for it to be an ethical crossing, certain normal stopover places must be visited and if a high level route from Keld to Reeth had to be followed, then you could make it that 'Level House Bridge' had to be taken in en-route. Times of day and splits in between these places would have to be recorded and an honesty statement signed.
Of course anyone could cheat or even make up a fictitious crossing, but at the end of the day, they would they only be cheating themselves
I class mehtods as :-
SELF SUPPORTED -
On your own, carrying everything needed to get all the way across - shelter & Foods etc, not making any purchases, although water can be obtained by knocking on a door.
UNSUPPORTED -
On your own as in Self Supported, but can make purchases of food and drink en route.
SUPPORTED -
On your own or with others carrying your own gear, but using B&B or Bunkhouse accomodation.
FULLY SUPPORTED -
As in supported, but using a Baggage Carrying Service.
Dave.

Methods not mehtods!

Good clarification there Dave - makes sense... I suppose it's both a good thing and bad that Wainwright didn't really make it too specific, which I suppose says a lot about the man himself..?

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.

I don't need country to slow me down Dave... current training pace is around 10.5 m/m and if I'm very lucky might get down to 8.5 m/m over 5m at best! Even in my 20's 6.9 m/m was my best shot lol

I met a person today who is involved with the 65 hour walk. I have asked him to post details on this site. So, with a bit of luck ........

I don't think distance is the problem as John Merrill is still going strong in his sixties.Running seems to be the culprit as the Victorian six day racers seemed to suffer the same problems.Charles Rowell,who held the world 100 miles and 24 hour record died at the age of 53 whilst Edward Payson Weston,who was a walker,was still going strong in his seventies despite covering the same mileage.

Yeah, Tony that's is my thinking too, and although I am trying to get back into running, it is only for the sake of training and maybe the odd race. However over long distance I'll think I will stick to walking as I dont want my Hip/Groin problems to flare up again.
Running on these LDPs no doubt will shift you along in the early stages, but I think it is most probable that it takes more out of you, than walking for more hours at a good pace.
Dave.