Making History on the Pennine Way – Damian Hall

Damian Hall, record-breaking ultra-marathon runner and holder of the fastest known time along the 268-mile Pennine Way. Not only beating Mike Hartley’s record, which stood for 31 years, but also slashing 3 hours off John Kelly’s attempt, who had taken the title from Mike, just a week before.  Damian also cleared the trail of litter along the way.

Damian sat down with Ultrarunner Magazine to talk about where this all began, what motivates him to keep going after challenges and why he finds it impossible to get over the UTMB!  Damian also discusses his balance of being at the top of ultrarunning with being a UK Athletics coach, a widely published journalist, author and a parent.

Moving to Bath, England in 2011 from Australia I sat at home, proof-reading a book for work, when I suddenly realised how unfit I was feeling. Looking for a challenge to raise my fitness levels I thought about that marathon everyone seemed to be bangin’ on about, the Bath half Marathon. I had always been a fan of long-distance hiking, or ‘tramping’ as I had come to know it, and football had always been a love of mine, but running without a ball? Would that not be incredibly boring? I signed up, did the thing, and absolutely loved the experience, so much so, that I waited an entire year just to do it again.