FORTY marathons in forty days challenger Stuart Hardie described his elation as he finished his challenge today.

From John O’Groats to Land’s Ends, the 65-year-old has been put through his paces but was happy to have finished.

‘When I passed the finish line I was just emotional, really emotional and I hadn’t thought it would affect me as much as it did,’ he said.

‘But I am satfisfied – it is a job well done and the reason I am satisfied is beacuse I always said I could do it.

‘It was just so much harder than I had ever imagined.’

Mr Hardie began his journey on 20 September and has completed 1,022 miles in total.

During this time he had to take one day off because of injuries and advice from the doctor.

But he said he will make up the mileage.

‘We are short of one marathon because of the day we missed and we didn’t recover the miles so I have done 39 marathons.

‘But we are doing a relay marathon next weekend so I am going to complete the final marathon then.’

To help him towards his goal of raising £1m. go to: www.justgiving.com/stuart-hardie