3#10 Damian Hall: Ultrarunner
“I can see now that I loved the training as much as the event: it was having a mission, some discipline and routine, pushing myself a little more…”
Episode 3#10…
… is all about Damian Hall: almost certainly the most self-effacing man ever to finish fifth at the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc. For those unfamiliar, “Wiltshire Alps” based Damian is an ultrarunner, UK Athletics Coach, journalist, author and climate activist with a passion for tea. He’s achieved competitive finishes in such celebrated events as the Spine Race (along the Pennines), the Dragon’s Back Race (down the length of Wales) and the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa (170km around the second highest mountain in the Alps).
“The cliche in our sport is that it’s an eating competition with some light exercise thrown in.”
But that, as with all the guests on Mountain Air, is only half the story. Damian is also a lifelong journalist whose passion for the written word kicked off his career in sports journalism, took him to the editorship of a travel and adventure magazine in Sydney, led him to contribute to industry-leading hillwalking, hiking and fitness magazines back in the UK, and finally (at the stage of early middle age when many would consider hanging up their trainers) to running as a life-defining passion.
“I nearly did a PhD in the sociology of football fandom… I’m fully aware that nobody would have ever read that.”
Since discovering an unquenchable thirst (and, it must be said, what’s clearly a natural aptitude) for running, Damian has used his experiences and growing profile to train fellow athletes and expand the ambition of his writing. Consequently, not only does he oversee a roster of clients eager to take on epic global races such as the Tor des Geants (an eye-watering 330km event based around Courmayeur in the Italian Alps) and the Marathon des Sables (six marathons in seven days through the Moroccan Sahara); but he’s also written guidebooks to walking in the Cotswolds (Cicerone) and on the Pennine Way (Aurum), and the much celebrated climate-focused running book “We Can’t Run Away From This” (Vertebrate).
“If you’ve enjoyed the outdoors, I think it’s logical that you’d be a little concerned about what’s happening to the world.”
Learn about all of the above, including why joining the Green Runners can help make a difference (even if you’re not a runner), and why cheating death on an ice field in Mount Cook National Park can change your life, in Mountain Air 3|10.
Listen, enjoy, tell your friends, subscribe to the podcast if you get and chance, and thank UKHillwalking.com for their kind support of this series!
[episode recorded on 22/11/24]
00:00 - Introduction.
03:08 - Welcome from the Wiltshire Alps.
07:40 - A late start in life with running, with a previous life as a football journalist (“at school I was only half good at two things and that was probably PE and English”).
10:00 - FourFourTwo magazine: “I used to ghostwrite Rodney Marsh’s column! This might be lost on some of your audience…”
12:55 - “I nearly did a PhD in the sociology of football fandom… I’m fully aware that nobody would have ever read it.”
16:20 - Life as an outdoor journalist and editor of “TNT” in Sydney, the challenges of making a living with the written word.
23:08 - In-depth chat about Damian’s life in running (“I was sub-editing on a book, late at night, maybe January-ish in 2011 and I remember feeling unhealthy and thinking that Bath had a big half-marathon happening March…”).
24:05 - “I always wanted to be a footballer really, which was an absolute pipe dream as I was usually a sub for the school team... and I realise now that I loved just covering the ground, running up and down and being the fittest on the team.”
24:55 - “I can see now it was the training as much as the event, it was having a mission, some discipline and routine, pushing myself a little more… and I loved it... And so the next year I was running my first marathon dressed as a toilet (yes I did look a bit flushed) raising money for Wateraid.”
26:30 - Being sent on a first ultramarathon as a magazine feature (with the accompanying pressure to finish), and soon running 100km and 100mile events and eventually representing Team GB Trail Running at the aged of 40, only four years after a first marathon.
29:45 - “Ironically I used to look a lot like Teddy Sheringham when I had more hair.”
30:21 - Can anyone suitably enthused become an ultra runner?
34:04 - “The cliche in our sport is that it’s an eating competition with some light exercise thrown in.”
37:55 - The joy of being out running in sunrise and sunset.
40:18 - Being pestered into running coaching, it expanding during COVID lockdown, working with those looking to achieve their long-distance running ambitions (“mostly it’s just telling people to go for a run”).
48:50 - What lies ahead in 2025?
51:48 - Climate activism: “If you’ve enjoyed the outdoors, I think it’s logical that you’d be a little concerned about what’s happening to the world.”
54:30 - We Can’t Run Away From This (“It’s very serious and depressing so I wouldn’t recommend anyone reads it”).
58:28 - Greatest mountain memory: unplanned sliding on ice in New Zealand in Mount Cook National Park.
62:22 - All the time, money, freedom… where do you go and what do you do? Antarctica: “I had a spell where I was pretty obsessed with the stories of Robert Falcon Scott… so I’d be fascinated to see some of those places and what they look like now”
This episode was proudly sponsored by (and first appeared on) ukhillwalking.com
Together with sister site ukclimbing.com, UKH’s stated aim is “to bring our readers both the best of hillwalking, climbing and mountaineering from around the world.”