Green win at British epic for vegan runner

Damian Hall is known for his incredible Spine Race course record and his successful fight for a top ten place at the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc.  However, he’s always had an ambition to take on the Lakeland 100.

A shade over the title at 105 miles, the circular course cover the Lakeland fells and was always known as The Big One when Damian made his start in the sport.  He avoided taking on the brutal course – which includes 6300 metres of height gain due to the risk of injury.

“I ran L50 [a shorter 50 mile event] 11 years ago, when I was still a newbie and it was a hill areas bellyflop. But I was blown away by the atmosphere of the event.”

Perhaps it was confidence following his recent successes that encouraged him to take it on.

Winning in just under 19 hours 34 minutes, Damian led from the early stages and finished 30 minutes ahead of second.

Vegan Runner

Damian turned vegan for ecological reasons.

“I just really feel strongly that times running out. It’s just really quite alarming” he says.  He’s formed a club called ‘Green Runners’ which has been resourceful in finding different ways to counter damage in running, including travel, diet and responding to race sponsorship from oil companies.

He’s continued to run at incredible levels since he turned vegan and previously said:

“I broke three records last year [2020] and they are important but they are not the most important thing. For each of those records I did them without animal products fuelling me. Also without creating any plastic waste, which is much more difficult actually. Plus picking up litter as I went which my team helped me to do.”

Damian’s still ambitious and has plans to run the UKs top 100s while he is still capable of his high standards.  Currently two of them have high-carbon sponsors

 “So I won’t be doing them for now” he says.