5 years. She ran the 4:34 in 2019.

Ya seems she was sub 3 hours two years ago, steadily bringing that time to low 2;50's, then 2;40's to the 2;36.

Just a naturally gifted runner who never knew it until she started running some miles. And being 23 doesn't hurt either... (-;

Seems like she could have a big future in pro marathon running if she drops another 10 minutes or so, how great would that be for her..

I didn't mean to belittle her accomplishments. Significant achievements. The UK does seem to have a history of people with little sporting background become elite in short periods of time.

ahh yea... covid math. a time warp of 2 years missing from my life

It’s pretty easy with super shoes now. Anyone can run a 2:36.

I feel like stories like this sound more impressive when people that have good genetics don’t train hard for their first event, then start actually training properly. For me, I give everything for my events, so my initial times don’t give a ton of growth over the years.

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My Strava | My Instagram | Summerville, SC | 35-39 AG | 4:41 (70.3), 10:05 (140.6) | 3x70.3, 1x140.6 | Cat 2 Cyclist

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article said she played hockey when she was younger and still plays, so she is probably pretty athletic

I dont think hockey helps much, speaking as a former hockey player... and how many hockey players have put down good marathon times?

I do know a local marathoner who says his background was tennis only, first marathon in college 4+ hours, eventually getting down to 2:18 ~10 years later

Talking field hockey? Yeah I’ve got no idea as I don’t know any from hockey. I figure there is probably some cross training and run fitness encouraged for juniors coming through if they are playing on some kind of development path. For example water polo usually involves some kind of swimming fitness unless you’re a 250 pound / 120kg 17 year old and that ship has sailed

So for the kids on the development path in water polo the set they would do is 20x100 on 1:20 short course meters. Absolute garbage for pure swimmers but involves some foundation training

I imagine most hockey kids would be sub 20 m 5km? Again absolutely Garbage for pure runners but foundation training required

With some proper endurance training puts the drop to 230s in perspective

Is this actually that impressive? An alternative headline could be: "Healthy female runner runs 2:36 marathon after 2 years of hard training".

The 4:34 is a red herring, most people do their first marathon just to finish. View that data point as a sub-maximal performance and the story makes a lot more sense

Reminds me of Dutch runner Nienke Brinkman. Also former field hockey player. Started serious running in 2019 and now has a pb of 2.22 i think. Natural talent.

Chrissie Wellington, Jasmin Paris, Damian Hall immediately jumped on top of my mind.

This article is from 2022 -- looks like she's improved to 1:14-high/2:34. Great endurance to be able to run 2:34 off of that half. I would guess the 4:34 came off of very little training. Looks like she started too fast @ 5:15/k & went backwards after 10k. She probably could have run sub-4 in that race & I bet her 2nd marathon was a ton faster. It's super impressive no matter what. The time jump looks huge on paper but 4:34 was never really her starting point. 1st marathons are like that. Our progression is pretty much the same. I ran a very difficult first marathon and then ran a ton faster a few months later. I improved rapidly to ~1:20 half/sub-2:50 and then marginal gains over several years to chip away from there down to ~same times (a little faster half/a little slower full).

Totally hear what people are saying about natural talent. Some people just start off a lot faster than other people. That wasn't me.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-bruins/2023/11/06/zdeno-chara-boston-bruins-marathon-nhl-hockey-new-york-city/


I know it's not an "elite" time, but certainly above average. Especially for a 46 yr old man, who is also 6'9.

I think that's actually the natural progression for anyone with that level of hi-ceiling talent.

As said before, the initial 4+hr marathon is a red herring. She likely barely trained for it. But then once someone with that kind of talent starts to train 'for real', and I don't even mean heroic training early on, they get really good, really fast. They certainly don't run 3:30 marathons for like 3-years, and then incrementally make their way to 2:30s with similar training year after year.

I do think triathlon with 3 sports, you can have more incremental year-over-year gains just because you have 3 sports. So if it took 2 years to capture 'most' of your potential gains, and you started from ground zero (which most people do not), it'll still be at least 6 years before you're seeing all your potential. For typical AGers who don't near-max their training, it can be more than that.

I guess it also could be the coaching she got, as most AG folk don't consider a proper one years down the road after they notice similar people to them can run much faster

Press X to doubt.

Sure, coaching helps you go to 'max level' training faster, without injury, and could be a big factor in getting to her potential more rapidly than most.

But without the talent to run 2:36 in the first place, none of this is happening, not even close.

Case study from 45 years ago, my classmate Joan Benoit was a field hockey player who started running to rehab from a ski injury and in a few years ran 2:35 then got down to 2:22 in about five years (no super shoes!) Lots of women with innate athletic talent that’s not identified early.

Hockey is excellent prep for middle distance running (800m-3k range); growing up in a hockey-mad location meant that every spring random hockey dudes would swap skates for spikes and not just tangle with but frequently crush those of us who had been running all winter. Talented athletes, but months of high intensity reps on the ice really helped them.

yes but she didnt throw on the spikes in off season. most hockey players during my time swapped skates for the roller blades (or foot). Running was never on the radar, maybe if we jumped into soccer games