Runner’s Spotlight: Victoria and her London Marathon PB!

With just 20 weeks to go before London Marathon 2023, we wanted to share Victoria’s London Marathon 2022 journey to inspire you and help you tick off your London Marathon training.

Hey, I am Victoria who is 41 years old and a mother of 3 kids two of who are 6 and one is 8. I started running in 2014 aged 33 after my first son was born. My main reason for starting was to get fit but I soon found the amazing benefits of headspace and endorphins! I signed up for the London Marathon in 2015 to give me a goal and I ran a lot to train. I found training long and hard but I LOVED the race! I had a fabulous day, enjoyed every moment of the crowds and ran it in 4hr 39 which I was super happy with. I had never believed that I could complete it and I was buzzing for weeks afterwards.

Since then I have run fairly consistently about twice a week between 5 and 10k. I run a lot with my husband and with friends and love taking my kids out on their bikes and doing longer rides with them although they are now getting too speedy for me to keep up with!

In January this year I was feeling that my running was getting stagnant – I never seemed to get any faster or fitter. I needed another goal! This coincided with the end of a fundraising campaign my team and I were running at work. This was for the Never Too Young Campaign run by Bowel Cancer UK and championed by my friend and colleague Sophia Sangchi before she lost her battle with bowel cancer in 2019 aged 33. So having secured a place in the London Marathon, I had to start training and fundraising!

I started training in July after my husband completed a long bike challenge at the end of June (two parents focused on a big challenge at once is too much for our family!!) I started my marathon plan with Coopah and haven’t looked back. Loved the weekly goals and the variation in training, loved the focussed strength work and yoga and loved the fact that it was all there in one place keeping me on track.

I definitely had a few challenges during my training and weeks where the miles were just not possible but in general I was lucky and my body gradually got stronger and faster. I really enjoyed this journey – it is amazing to feel a weekly sense of achievement and progression and whilst it is hard to stay focused when life gets in the way or your body makes you rest once I was back on track I always found I could pick up where I left off.

My biggest challenge was getting enough rest. A big family and a full time job means training gets squeezed into the margins of the day. Whilst I was always happy to fit the runs in, what I found harder is finding the time to then stretch and recuperate. This is a hugely important part of any training plan and not to be underestimated. The good thing about the Coopah plan though is that it gives you flexibility and for me the most important realisation was that it didn’t all have to be perfect. If a run didn’t feel good, cut it short and if a run felt too good then go for it and enjoy it!! The main thing is, I trained much smarter this time round and it took me away from the kids much less than when I trained last time.

The week running up to the marathon was rubbish. I pulled my back and really thought I wouldn’t be able to run. Lots of emergency hours later at Instant Physio and I was acupunctured, strapped up, drugged up and hopeful that I would be able to complete it even if it hurt!

On the day, I was sore and my back spasmed quite early on but the pain was manaegable so I went for it. I definitely had a few moments feeling that I was running faster than I could sustain but I trusted my training, remembered my friend Sophia and cracked on. It was amazing to visualise my family on the finish line and how excited the kids would be. I finished in 3 hrs 46, 53 mins faster than my last marathon, 7 years and 2 more kids later. Even more excitingly my colleague and I managed to raise £10k for the Never Too Young campaign which felt super.

I have how officially got the bug! I just want to continue getting faster and stronger and I have my eyes on an ultra marathon next! I have put my name in the good for age ballot for the London Marathon next year and if i get it I suppose I will have to run it.

From all of us at Coopah, huge congratulations to Victoria on her London Marathon achievement!

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