This week on Ultra Insights, I sit down with one of the UK’s most accomplished ultra runners, Damian Hall. With a win at the 2023 Spine Race, two appearances at the legendary Barkley Marathons, and multiple Fastest Known Time records to his name, Damian Hall is not only a fierce competitor but also a coach and author.

In our conversation, Damian shares candid reflections on his journey, from the quirks that keep him grounded to the friendships forged on the trails. Whether you’re an aspiring ultra runner or simply curious about what drives endurance athletes, this week’s feature offers a rare glimpse into the mindset, habits, and future plans of one of the sport’s true originals.

Today I’m chatting with the 2023 Spine winner. He’s got two Barkley Marathons appearances. He’s a multiple FKT record holder. He’s a coach and he’s an author. He’s Damien Hall. Damien, how are you doing?

“Hi. Thank you. Really, really well. Thank you.”

So, to get started, I’ve got some quick rapid-fire questions for you. So just whatever comes to mind first, just spit out there okay.

So how long have you been running ultra distances?

“I think 13 years.”

When did you last run and what was the distance?

“I ran today; 10 miles easy with some strides.”

What’s your favourite ultra distance?

“I’m still very attached to, I suppose, the 100 miles. Although, if I look back over the last few years, I’ve probably done 200 miles or more, probably more often. But there’s something nice about 100 miles that hopefully it’s done in 24 hours before you get into the really messy stuff.”

What’s your biggest achievement to date?

“Oh, yikes. I think having the courage to use my platform for more than running.”

What’s your go-to running shoe right now?

“The Brute. I am sponsored by NNormal and they’ve got three shoes really and the more sort of wintery, grippy, muddy one is the Brute. So I’ve been wearing that a lot lately as we’re talking in mid-November.”

What’s your favourite trail snack right now?

“Trail snack? Oh, I’m really into the buttermilk buttermilk bars. Ironically with the name, they’re actually plant-based chocolate bars that taste a lot like the sort of conventional Mars bars and Snickers and so on, but they’re all plant-based. So yeah, I like them.”

What’s the first thing you pack for your race?

“Oh, uh, after my pack, I guess. Uh, yeah, I guess she, I guess the shoes, I guess, I guess the shoes are important. I mean, yeah. Shoes.”

And what’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in a race?

“Well, my most recent event, uh, I wasn’t racing it, um, in the morning there was a unicorn, a real-life unicorn. Well, I say real life. There might be a person inside it, but there was a unicorn.”

Great answers. Thank you. So, if you don’t mind, then we’ll just dive into your journey and if you can share your experiences with us.

What or who inspired you to get into ultra running?

“Yeah. Good question. I don’t know. I don’t know if I can pinpoint exactly when I heard about ultra marathons, but it probably would have been a combination of maybe seeing, I think I became aware of the marathon disabler by seeing pictures and magazines.

Cause it’s so striking visually. Um, maybe when I was, yeah, a few years before and then a new magazine came out called outdoor fitness and I started writing for them, but they started talking about ultra marathons.

Yeah, it wasn’t one person, but then I did find the books. Yeah, Dean Canazes and Born to Run and Running with the Kenyans. There weren’t many. We’re talking like 2012-ish and there weren’t actually many running books. It’s odd to think of it now because every idiot has a running book now. But there weren’t many.

But definitely, I suppose Dean Canazes, yeah, I don’t know if he was definitely an inspiration, but he definitely opened my eyes to this crazy new world.”

I think in a race or in training, everyone has a quirk. What’s yours and why?

“Uh, well, I’ve got quite quirky hair or lack of lack of hair, uh, quirk. Oh gosh. I’m going to say my hair. Yeah, my hair. I’ve got the haircut of a 15 year old who lost a drunken fight with a lawnmower. There we go.”

What’s a race route or challenge that has generally scared you before you took it on and why?

“Think a lot of them have when you’re, when it’s a new distance, I suppose. Um, certainly, well, the one that jumps out is yeah, first winter spine race. It was only my fifth race.

So really, I think a lot of people are a bit more sensible with building up the map, but I was there on the start line. I’d done 100 miler. Yeah, I was totally, but my mind was just full of curiosity and what, you know, what’s this going to feel like? but yeah pretty pretty frightened pretty frightened of that. But it turned out all right. So yeah, I’d say first spine race”.

What was your result in that race by the way? Obviously, you’ve won the one in the 2023.

“I’ve started at five times, finished at four times. This is back in 2014. So, it was only the third edition. I actually ended up fourth. But that was more just by sort of staying in the race than, you know, many, many hours behind the winner. So I wasn’t really expecting to be competitive.

But that certainly gave me an appetite of wanting to be more competitive, I suppose. But yeah, it was the first race, previous two years, that only had roughly 10 or 20 people. And then suddenly for the third year, they had like 80 people.

And the trackers, they had the trackers for the first time. So, it was quite a big jump. It was quite a big change for the race. But yeah, very, very exciting. And yeah, I got everything I wanted and more from it”.

What’s the most underrated part of ultra running that no one talks about, really, would you say?

“Friendships. Yeah. Good communities. Yeah. I’ll go with that. I think some of my best friends now are people I’ve met in, yeah, well, at the spine race and stuff like that. So, yeah”.

What’s the best piece of gear you use in ultras and why?

“Ooh, I’ve mentioned shoes a couple of times. I’m going to maybe say my watch is very good. Again, I’m trying not to be that predictable sponsored athlete and mention things I’m sponsored by, but I do love my Suunto.

I think it’s a Suunto Vertical. I don’t even, I’m not even quite sure. I’ve used all three of the main sort of brands and Suunto are the more, much more ethical, but also, Yeah, I like the simplicity of it.

It’s just really reliable. Other brands have let me down at key times in races, repeatedly, actually. And Sunto is, yeah, amazing battery, amazing maps, simple to use as well. And then the heart rate variability is good as well. So, yeah, I think that’s really useful for my training”.

If your mind starts spiralling out of control mid-race, what’s your go-to reset button?

“I think it’s the classic kind of remembering why you do it, you know. remembering that you, well, a line I use with some of my athletes is kind of you signed up for this, like no one’s making you do it. You wanted to do this, and it will be tough. Like that gives it value.

 It was good, you know, and you wanted an adventure as well, probably, which means it didn’t go entirely to plan. That’s almost the definition of adventure. So, to try and embrace the fact it’s more, you know, it’s uncomfortable, it’s difficult. It’s not gone quite to plan to try and embrace that. Um, and just remember, this is what you love doing and I do find that quite helpful.

There’s a brilliant line actually by, uh, Hannah Rickman, which is, laugh or quit. Which some of my athletes have said is really useful. So, yeah, it’s trying to have that that awareness that sense of why sense of humour maybe, when it’s got tough”.

What’s your top tip for injury prevention and staying durable for a heavy training block?

“Yeah, that’s a good one so I’ve been very, I’ve avoided injury for many years now, or, you know, significant injury. I did, I did drop out of one race with an injury, but, but like I’ve avoided training injuries.

But I don’t really know why, but it’s probably a combination of things. Like I do have a coach and I’m going to turn my volume up because it’s so rainy here. I think following a plan that someone else has set for you, it can keep things more sensible.

Definitely my coach holds me back. Otherwise, I would probably do more volume and get injured. I do see a physio every four weeks and get a leg massage and nearly always there’s some tightness somewhere that I didn’t realise.

So that’s a really good preemptive thing. I do do my strength work. I value sleep. I don’t drink alcohol. I think amongst those things, there’s something helping me.

Definitely, I guess. Yeah, also another thing, it may not be crucial, but as you can tell, I’m standing up at the moment. I don’t stand all day, but I do have a standing desk and a lot of people, they’ll start with bad posture and then they’ll go for a run and their posture isn’t going to magically become good.

So, think about your lifestyle and yeah, fuelling enough, eating enough as well. It can be easy to get caught in the trap of thinking, well, lighter is better. I’ll just under fuel a bit. You have to be really careful with that. But yeah, there’s plenty of things there. I think somewhere amongst those things, there’s enough to help injury avoidance”.

And just having a coach there, do you find that keeps you accountable?

“I don’t have any problem getting out, like getting motivated. Like in my 12 years, I’ve never been unmotivated. I’ve never felt I don’t fancy running today. I love it so much that I’m desperate to go out.

I don’t think it’s the accountability, actually, but I think it’s more someone being more sensible than I would be, I suppose. I just love running. I would do anything. you know, 12 miles every day type thing and a 20 mile at the weekend if someone didn’t hold me back.

And I was, I was self-coached for two years and one of those years was really, really good. But the next year I was probably plateauing and regressing simply because I was doing 80, 200 miles a week and a 20 miler in the mountains at the weekend. And after a while, that’s just going to knock you out really.

And so, I had, so David Roach, I guess he makes sure I do some quality, some strides and he does, it is less volume and there has to be one rest day. And those sorts of things are probably, giving me the longevity that I’m getting”.

If you could give somebody stepping up in distance one tip, what would that be and why?

“Oh, definitely increased volume gradually. Studies have shown, actually, that’s one of the biggest causes of injury is just jumping up, whether it’s your long run, jumping from 10 miles to 20, for example, or just your volume. You’re doing 30, 40 miles a week. You read that someone does and you jump up.

You might get away with it once or twice, but that sort of just jumping up a bit too dramatically, that’s asking for trouble.

The other thing is I would say, you only asked me for one, but the other one is, yeah, keep the easy runs genuinely easy. Like no one, you know, 99% of people don’t care what your Strava, what you upload to Strava. They really don’t. It doesn’t interest them.

So, keep your easy runs genuinely easy, conversational pace. and you can build up a huge aerobic volume from that and it will make you faster. Even easy running makes you faster. So yeah, easy runs, truly easy. And then you’re, then you’re better rested for the quality runs as well. Unless I actually get injured. So yeah, two, two tips in there”.

Yeah, I must say it’s a good one. That’s one thing I never did when I got into it, I was too hard running and then, you know, I always wanted to beat my best pace. And then I got injured. I was doing the easy runs too hard. So yeah, good.

If you had to build a starter kit for a new Ultra Runner, what are the three items or skills you’d put in that box?

“Well, at risk of being boring and repetitive, I guess it would be, you know, shoes, watch and probably a pack”.

And to wrap up, a fun one, If you could have any three people dead or alive pace you on your favourite race, who would they be and what would the race be?

“It’d be the Barkley marathons and it would be Jasmine Paris, uh, John Kelly, um, and, and Mike Hartley. So, uh, to take me around and show me all the books that I can get at one time”.

Great answers. I really appreciate that. Damien, thanks for your time today and sharing your wisdom with the readers. I really appreciate it.

What’s your plans for 2026? And how can people check in and follow you?

“Yeah, I’m, I’m on Instagram. 2026 at the moment, I’m pretty keen on, Swiss peaks in the late summer. It’s big. yeah, Swiss peaks, 380 in Switzerland, as the name suggests. I’ve got a place at the winter spine sprint North. So just, just a shorter version this year. And I’m still going to go back and try my three solo project sometime in the summer as well. And, yeah, maybe one or two other things. I’m just finalising them. But, yeah, at the moment, that’s what it looks like. But, yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me on”.

Excellent. Appreciate your time again. Thank you, Damien. Cheers.

“Cheers, dude”.

If you’re inspired by Damian’s journey and want to explore more, check out these fantastic resources.

Into Ultra is a hub for ultra running enthusiasts, offering advice, stories, and community support for runners of all levels.

The Green Runners is a movement dedicated to making running more sustainable, encouraging athletes to take positive action for the planet.

And for those keen to see Damian in person, you can find details of his upcoming “Running Forever” theatre tour at Speakers from the Edge where he’ll be sharing tales from the trails and insights from his remarkable career.

And look out for his new book “Run Forever” coming 9 April 2026.