Student Selected for Magazine’s Marathon Training Initiative

A mature student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, has been selected for a marathon training initiative with Women’s Running magazine as she prepares for the Brighton Marathon this April. First year Health, Exercise and Physical Activity (HEPA) student Vicky Burr beat over 1,000 entrants to become one of few candidates to take part in Project 26.2. Competition winners will receive free training advice and a kit to run in leading up to competing in their chosen spring marathon. Along with five other women, and running alongside a group of six men for Men’s Running magazine, Vicky will share the challenges she faces while training for the marathon via a series of social media posts and column pieces in the magazine. She said, “The Project is about supporting six women to achieve their marathon goals. With a coach, a bespoke training plan, nutrition advice, along with sponsors who will provide running kit and nutrition products, we’ll have all the support professional athletes have.” Vicky has never run a full marathon before, having only taking up running two years ago. She ran in the Richmond Running Festival Half Marathon in September but is looking forward to the new challenges she will face. She said, “I was really excited when I found out I had been selected for Project 26.2. I had been debating on whether to take part in the marathon or not but now I’m publically committing to it. Lots of people run marathons but a lot more don’t. Doing it at my age is a big achievement considering two years ago I couldn’t run for a bus, and I’ve only been running for a short period of time.” The six women will be trained by one coach, ultra runner Anne-Marie Lategan, Women’s Running’s Fitness Editor, and the HEPA undergraduate will also use her studies to contribute to her training. Vicky said, “In one of my lectures, we spoke about carb loading and how the way we prepare our meals affects our food. It’s been interesting to learn as it is set in the context of sport and exercise, so it’s been really helpful. The physiology and anatomy content has also been helpful. When you learn how the body works, you understand how to grow muscles and how to keep yourself injury free. My research tutor happens to be doing work around sports bras, so she’s been able to give me great advice. Everyone from the HEPA team has contributed something useful.” Vicky started her running regime after realising she needed to get fit based on some of her academic studies. She first started running using the NHS Couch to 5K initiative, downloading podcasts for training over nine weeks. She explains that it is “an amazing programme that starts with one minute of running intervals and builds up every week. There’s a big online community and the support people give one another is immense. Although I didn’t have health issues myself, I have seen a massive improvement in the quality of life in people who did have physical and mental health issues.” To keep updated on Vicky’s journey, you can follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.