Until recently I was a keen – though not particularly good – runner: Saturday morning park runs, interspersed with a couple of other early morning sessions, a half-marathon most years and a one-off London marathon (never again!). Whilst a long-standing joint issue has, at least for the time being, put the kibosh on that particular activity for me, running still remains close to my heart.
So when a friend recently started her own running bookclub- reading books about running, not reading whilst running I hasten to add – I was keen to join up (as well as support her new venture). Once a month a book-shaped package arrives through my letterbox, and until I open it I have no idea what I’m going to get.
At the beginning of May I received – hot off the press and signed by the author! – Damian Hall’s book In it for the long run. Formerly a journalist, Hall is now a professional ultrarunner, discovering his love of running long distances after he ran his first marathon at the age of thirty-six dressed as a toilet (to raise money for the charity WaterAid).
I have never run an ultramarathon – strictly speaking any distance exceeding 26 miles – and never will. And I have never wanted to. But I find accounts of ultrarunning fascinating: the brutality of the ordeal, the relentlessness of the effort, but also the joy of being outside in these often bleak but beautiful landscapes and the sheer wonder of what the human body can achieve.
Hall has tackled – and achieved extremely good times running – some amazing distances. He began with The Wall, a 69 mile course over two days which starts at Carlisle Castle; but has also run the 70 mile Isle of Wight coastal path, the 130 mile Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, the 260 mile Spine Race along the Pennine Way and – most mind-staggeringly – the 630 mile South West Coastal Path (in just 10 days!). On the day I finished reading In it for the long run Hall also finished running the route of the Coast to Coast walk (from St Bees Head on the Cumbrian coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire coast). He set a new record by completing the run in 39 hours, 18 minutes and 40 seconds, beating the previous record (set in 1991 by Mike Hartley) by 18 minutes.
One advantage that ultrarunning has over shorter distances of running – from my point of view – relates to food. Little food – if any – is consumed when running any distance up to and including a marathon; jelly babies and disgusting but energy-inducing sports gels are usually as far as it goes (with obviously plenty of water and perhaps the occasional sports drink). But an ultramarathon is an entirely different matter, one which requires the runner to stop and eat proper food – no wonder I find them an appealing prospect (albeit only in my fantasies).
And Hall does not neglect on the details of the food that he consumes during – and after – his runs. His description of runs is interspersed by description of the food he consumes. Of his eating during the Spine Race along the Pennine Way he writes:
‘At lunchtime I bought a large slab of lemon drizzle cake in Malham, possibly the best decision I made in the race’.
‘I got my mojo back after a big bag of chips from the lonely Tan Hill Inn’
‘When a lady approached across a field, offering tea and a bacon roll, I thought I must be hallucinating’
He says of the run along the Isle of Wight coastal path – ‘Life is good when all you have to do is run and scoff Mars Bars‘.
Some routes don’t take in food-selling venues or many spectators, and on those occasions food is stashed along the way for Hall by his support team. This is the case when he runs the Paddy Buckley Round – a long distance fell running challenge in Snowdonia. At one point he devours ‘an éclair, chocolate milk and salty crisps’, and on his second time running this route, ‘brioche rolls crammed with nut butter, banana and chocolate spread’.
The food is distinguished by its general yumminess, and high levels of salt, sugar and fat – all crucial to provide energy to the flagging runner. But there are certain foods that Hall identifies as being particularly crucial to his success. When running the South West Coast Path Hall reaches the support van at 10pm one evening, providing him with the chance for a short power nap and a refuelling opportunity: ‘And then my secret weapon: custard…I ate an alarming amount of custard. It may have been what got me through it.’ Then when he runs the Pennine Way, after the first lockdown in the UK, in an attempt to get FKT (fastest known time on a designated route, but not done as part of a race), hummus is the superfood: ‘Jason offered me a hummus and avocado sandwich. It glided down. Game changer! It covered the three macronutrients, with an easy-to-suck-down texture and a delicious fresh flavour.’ Hall achieves FKT on the Pennine Way, so hummus is obviously the game changer.
By 2020 when Hall achieved his FKT on the Pennine Way, he had adopted a mainly vegan diet, motivated primarily by his concerns about the environment. His eco concerns have also manifested themselves in a commitment to fly no more than once a year for a race (obviously of little relevance during the last year) and to minimise any plastic waste. On his third go at the Paddy Buckley round – and the first during the winter months – he travelled to Snowdonia from his Wiltshire home by public transport and then focused on fuelling without creating plastic waste: ‘All those crisp packets, chocolate bars and bottles of sugary drinks‘ are replaced by ‘two organic Riverford bananas, one sizeable slab of vegan brownies (made by Amy [his wife]), a large helping of salty trail mix (from health-food shop dispensers), Outdoors provisions bars (delicious vegan snacks in compostable wrappers) and a big paper bag of penny sweets from the local post office.’
Custard and hummus seemed an ideal choice of recipes for this post – though obviously not to be served together! I’ve made custard before , and as I noted then Bird’s Custard powder, which was heavily promoted by the advertising hoards that are mentioned in Philip Larkin’s poem, was egg-free (though not vegan). But my recipe for that post used eggs, so I made some properly vegan custard this time around. And hummus is obviously vegan. The problem with both these dishes is that they are uninspiring to look at – beige alert – though not to eat, so apologies for the photos. They won’t inspire you, but read the book and you just might feel inspired.
A VEGAN ULTRARUNNER’S CUSTARD
Ingredients (serves 4 as an accompaniment to your pudding of choice, or 1 hungry runner):
450ml plant milk (I used almond milk)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cornflour
Method:
Spoon 5 tablespooons of the milk into a medium-sized bowl and pour the remainder into a saucepan. Add the cornflour to the milk in the bowl and stir to make a smooth paste.
Add the sugar and vanilla extract to the milk in the pan and place over a medium heat. Stir the milk occasionally until the sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat slightly until the milk reaches scalding point (small bubbles are formed around the edge of the pan but the milk doesn’t actually boil). At this point take the milk off the heat and pour into the bowl with the cornflour paste, stirring as you do so. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, and return to the heat, stirring as the custard thickens. Bring the custard to the boil and allow it to bubble for a minute. Then pour the custard into a jug and serve.
GAME CHANGER HUMMUS
Ingredients (enough for 2-3 as a starter, or about 6 hummus and avocado sandwiches):
125g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in plenty of water
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
125g tahini paste
¼ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
½ tablespoon lemon juice, plus more to taste
Method:
Drain the chickpeas, tip them into a large pan and cover with plenty of fresh cold water. Bring to the boil and skim off the foam that forms. Boil for 5 minutes then skim again. Add the bicarbonate of soda and mix well; the mixture will bubble up. Skim again, then cook at a steady simmer, skimming regularly. After 30 minutes check the chickpeas are cooked – they should be soft and melt in your mouth. If they’re not yet ready give them another 10 minutes or so.
Drain the chickpeas into a colander sitting over a jug or bowl so you retain the cooking liquid. Tip the chickpeas into a separate bowl and add 125ml of the cooking liquid. Do this whilst everything is still hot as that makes a smoother mixture. Add the garlic cloves and then blitz the mixture, either in a food processor or using a stick blender, until it’s really smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blitz again until everything is combined.
Cover the hummus (to avoid a skin forming) and leave to cool. Before eating check the taste and if need be add more salt and/or lemon juice. If it has become too thick, stir in a little cold water to loosen.
