Damian Hall “thrilled” by win as he has a grand day out on the Lakeland fells

Damian Hall celebrated another big achievement being ticked off in traditional style – with a mug of tea after his Lakeland 100 triumph!

The British ultrarunning star had long wanted a crack at the iconic event but other races like UTMB and Tor des Géants had tended to get in the way around this time of the season.

Not this year though and he grabbed his chance as he was the only person in the field to go under 20 hours, stopping the clock in 19:33 for the victory, 48 minutes outside Mark Darbyshire’s course record from 2024.

Ry Webb and Jarlath McKenna both pushed him at points though – as did Anna Llewellyn, who went on to take a clear-cut success in the women’s race.

Clock watching

And speaking to the race’s media team afterwards, Hall explained how his day panned out.

He said: “Ideally I was here to get the win but what I tend to do is focus more on a time – and sub 20 hours normally wins, though it didn’t last year when they’re were three very fast runners.

“I did achieve that and it was enough but there were definitely times in the race where it wasn’t working out.

“Going into the night I was chasing Jarlath, who is a very talented runner. He’s so fast and he almost won it two years ago.

“He just breezes the uphills and I was thinking if he judges it right then I haven’t got a chance. But he seemed to start suffering a bit [McKenna later revealed he had nutrition issues before rallying for third].

“And then there was Anna and I ran a lot with her. “I was trying not to race them but instead focus more on my time but then I got away from them in the morning.”

‘Thrilled to do alright’

But if he believed he was in for an easy time of it after that, he had to rapidly rethink.

He added: “I left Dalemain in the lead and thought ‘okay, this is working out well’.

“But then Ry Webb breezes by!

“I’d taken my foot off the gas and was chilling a bit too much – and Ry has beaten me before at ‘Lakes in a Day’.

“But then on the next climb he dropped back a bit – though I could see him behind me for quite a while – and every update I was getting was saying he was only 10 minutes or so behind me. I guess that helped motivate me but it’s kind of stressful a bit too.

“And it was only in the last couple of hours or so when people were telling me he was two miles behind that I knew I could relax a bit.

“The support out on the course was wonderful – “I’m 49 and that might actually be my last significant race in my forties.

“I’m thrilled to do a pretty historic race in Britain and do alright.”