A vegan athlete has scooped an unexpected spot on the podium at the recent GB National 5k Championships.
Lisa Gawthorne is best known as an international duathlon competitor, competing for Great Britain in the World Championships for the run–bike–run event. More recently she’s represented her country in running events.
Tricky course
The course was far from easy, completing three laps which included taking on the same hill four times.
“There was loads of support out on the course which was good as it was quite undulating in parts and it was a really nice experience racing on closed roads in what is normally a bustling busy little place,” Gawthorne told Great Vegan Athletes.
Unexpected place
The third place in her age group was a complete surprise for Gawthorne, who had been training with a different discipline in mind.
“I have been focusing more on bike training these past few months because next week I fly to Romania for the European Duathlon Champs so I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to the running side of things as I would have liked so I just wanted a solid strong run.
“To then be awarded a bronze medal was pretty special I have to say,” she said.
Vegan fuel
The athlete, who is also director of a company supplying vegan sweets, has been eating her way to success.
“[I’ve been eating] lots of seitan for protein, I am using a lot of the Love Seitan range and mixing it in with my favourite greens – broccoli, green beans, peas, cauliflower, kale, and spinach,” she said.”I have also been eating a lot of oats, rice cakes and quinoa to give me some sustainable energy to fuel both run and bike sessions.
“My current favorite pre-workout snack is corn cakes with Peanut Hottie powdered peanut butter and slices of banana or apple. As a treat, I’ve also been sampling the lovely new vegan cakes from Oggs which are totally delicious and I was lucky enough to find them in my local Waitrose last week in their first week of launch.”