If it had been my first race I’d have said never again”. I don’t think it made much of a difference. Sarah Inglis, one of the pre-race favourites had a similarly gruelling trudge to the end, but she doesn’t think even a crowded mass-marathon would have helped her “ “I had a similar experience in Arizona (her debut of 2:29:41) with no crowds. And she did, completing the race in 2:38:58 after walk-running the last 5 miles. Instead she battled on with just the covid-safe crew doing their best to help out, “around 10k to go was really bad, my vision had blurred and I was stumbling around but I kept telling myself ‘Becky you do not give up, that is not who you are’ “. There were some really lonely parts of Kew”. All the marshalls there did a great job, but nothing beats a roaring crowd all the way round. One wonders whether a bit more of an atmosphere might have helped her out at this point and Bekcy agrees “ it would have made a huge difference. “My mind and body were really fighting each other but I was determined to get to the end“. It’s an easy mistake to make when everything is feeling good and Becky told us that she nearly gave in at 21 miles (which she’d completed at 2:32 pace). Some just had to battle with the trials of being female – Charlotte Taylor-Green had bad stomach issues due to being on her period but refuses to be upset by it “you can’t control everything – my body and health is priority and I did what I had to for me… I want to continue running for a long time, there’s no rush”.īecky Briggs tackling hard solo miles in the second half. Understandably some didn’t want to think about it again because it was all a bit too raw, but others were able to share some of the positives and negatives of the day.Įlite marathoners are not immune to stomach and nutrition issues and that does seem to have been a common theme of this race. What might not have been completely clear from the online coverage was that while the course was indeed a fast one, and the potentially sharp corners had been carefully smoothed out, there was quite a headwind on the longest straight section of the route.Īs we now know, the race ranged from textbook, to tantalising, to unexpectedly wonderful, to frustratingly awful for the women taking part. Imagine racing the trials in the middle of a pandemic as your first marathon – and as the youngest competitor! Running into the wind Of course this was no normal race situation and for marathon debutante Becky Briggs there was not only the first time nerves but also the fact that “the concept of a start line felt so unfamiliar” and they had to do “our warmup strides with a mask on”. That said, she did “change outfit about three times” thanks to the very mixed forecast. There was a positive atmosphere and gratitude.” It felt different to all other marathons. We were all trying to gauge the weather on our warm up loop to see how windy it was going to be” and Rosie Edwards found “the energy around the race was so positive and I think every athlete was grateful to be there. Reading AC’s Naomi Mitchell recalls that “everyone was in really good spirits and excited to race. I saw microwaves, I took a toaster for my breakfast, the only thing that didn’t get bought was a kitchen sink!’. Pre race energiesĮveryone likes to get obsessive about the weather and what they eat the night before their race, and with high stakes like the trials, of course this was no different.Ĭlara Edwards, laughs ‘us runners really are a funny bunch’, ‘ it was so funny seeing all the athletes arrive with their cooking paraphernalia in the lobby. Now that the dust has settled on the GB marathon trials, Fast Running’s Gill Bland caught up with some of the women who raced in Kew to hear their tales from the trials.
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