Vegan bags an England vest for 10km international
Lisa Gawthorne is adding to her accolades with a national team place in the female over 35 age category over 10 km. The place means she will be representing England in late May 2019.
The company director, who has been vegan since age 21, had an England place as a goal. She knew she had to record a time of under 40:30 and finish in the top three of all runners with a registered intent in her age group.
“I qualified at Chichester 10K a few weeks ago, I ran a time of 40.07 at this race,“ Lisa tells Great Vegan Athletes. “Then they took my time of 39.57 ran at the Arley Hall 10k from November to seal the deal.” This was part of the process which takes the fastest time in the last six months.
“The actual 10k race that I have qualified for is the Simply Health Birmingham 10k on Sun 26th May. We get an elite start just behind the senior elite and our pen will be shared with other England and Celtic Runners who have also qualified in their age categories.”
Vegan runner
Lisa has already represented Great Britain at European and World level in Duathlon and has competition internationally at European and World level either side of the 10k race. She previously told Great Vegan Athletes:
“I am a huge animal lover and that was originally my reason for going veggie at the young age of six as I remember reading a leaflet that came through the door. It was about farming and battery farming and even at that young age, I made the connection that meat was actually of animal origin and felt it was wrong to carry on eating any meat for that reason.
She now runs a successful company supplying vegan confectionary including marshmallows and liquorice.
The England call up comes after an unsuccessful attempt last year when her targeted race for the qualifying time was cancelled due to bad weather.
“This year, I took no chances and despite living up North, I didn’t want bad weather to ruin the chances again so I travelled down South to Chichester and ran on the closed motor track there.
Upcoming challenges
“Getting the news that I qualified was probably the best email I have ever received on a running front. It means a lot a lot to me as running was and always will be my first love. I know I have made the GB age group team for duathlon for a number of years but getting a running vest for England in my age group has been a big goal of mine.
“I was delighted to have made the team and look forward to racing in late May (in between the World and European Sprint Duathlon Championships in April and June!).”
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