MEET THE EXPERTS
COACH
Richard Coates, Full Potential
Richard has been running since
his teens and has completed
over 30 marathons and ultras.
He’s a UKA Level 2 running
coach, so the team’s training is in safe hands.
fullpotential.co.ukNUTRITION
Raphael Deinhart, HIGH5
A former elite-level cyclist,
Raphael is HIGH5’s technical and
marketing coordinator. He’ll be
providing expert advice on pre-, mid- and post-
exercise nutrition.
highfive.co.ukSUPPLEMENTS
Paul Chamberlain, Solgar
Paul is Nutrition and Education
Director for Solgar UK. He has
an MSc in Sport and Exercise
Nutrition. A keen runner himself, Paul has over 20
years of experience in the nutrition and natural
health sector.
Solgar.co.ukKIT
Michael Moore, ASICS
Michael is a technical
representative with a deep
knowledge of running apparel.
He’ll help the team to get the
most from their shoes and kit.
asics.co.ukbad for your voice. However, I’m really
careful when I run to not do that and it helps
me with my running because it keeps my
breathing steady. Most of the time, I feel that
if I’ve had a run – as long as it’s not a really
intense interval sessions or something – I
actually sing better, because it’s opened up
my airway and got my lungs working really
well. If I had a big concert, I might do an
easy run but I wouldn’t do anything that was
going to make me breathe heavily.
What are you finding toughest at the
moment?
I do find interval training hard. It’s finding
that motivation to keep going through the
entire interval, so you’ll do the first three
intervals great and then it’s like, “Oh my
gosh!” I hate hills, and Richard’s given me hill
training; in the past I’ve always just given up
and walked the hill but I’m really trying. And
the long runs have been OK, because he’s
adding just 10 or 15 minutes a week.
What are you enjoying most about the
whole experience?
It’s been so nice with the other girls – we
have an online group and we all chat
and that’s been really nice, because often
running is super lonely. It’s hard for me
to go to a running group because I work
in the evenings and even on a Saturday
morning, when they have parkruns, I sing in
a synagogue – so it’s hard for me to have that
running community. So it’s been really nice
having the other girls to talk to. Also, being
accountable to a coach has been amazing,
because I want to do him proud and do the
magazine proud – I’m not just doing it for
myself, I’m doing it for other people.
How is the fundraising side of it going for the
Stroke Association?
It’s been so amazing. I think doing this and
having people seeing the blog and the article
and stuff, rather than being just another
person fundraising which they see all the
time, has made people sit up and notice.
I’m getting so close to my target, which is
so good, and I still have a few months to go
so I’ll hopefully surpass it. It’s made people
actually get in touch and be interested in it.
How did you find the shoe fitting?
I’ve never seen a 3D model of my foot so
that was interesting. I’ve had a gait analysis
before so I know that I overpronate but I
also know from bad experiences with other
shoes in the past, I’ve had a lot of pain when
I’ve used over-supportive shoes, so [the
ASICS staff] were really listening to what
I said, rather than just giving me what the
computer said. They worked with me, so
that was really nice.THE COACH’S VIEW
Katie has boundless energy. She found our
threshold training session useful as it taught her
the importance of what ‘controlled discomfort’
means. She was previously going too fast in the
threshold sessions. As she’s hypermobile, we
need to develop her hip strength and single-leg
balance especially on her left side. This will help
her immensely in the marathon as her knees
are currently collapsing. We also need to make
sure that she doesn’t do too much, too soon.
Rest days need to mean rest days. I think she’s
worried that if she doesn’t do anything it will be
bad for her training. I also think that exercise
makes her feel very happy so when she’s
not doing it, it can make her a little low. She
understands that rest days will help her adapt.LEAH
McDANIEL
Age 28
From Wrexham, north Wales
Big Marathon Challenge To rediscover her sense of
self, following the sudden death of her husband in
2014, and to raise money for Save the Children
Day job Mum to Bowen, two-and-a-half years oldLeah’s motivation for running a marathon
is deeply personal: in 2014, when she
was four months pregnant with their first
child, her husband Brett was killed in
a car accident. During the months that
followed, she moved back from Texas
to north Wales and gave birth to her
daughter, Bowen – but, she says, she
didn’t know where her life was going.
Leah hopes that by running the London
Marathon she’ll be able to rediscover
herself and raise vital money for Save the
Children.How’s your training going?
The first week went really well, I loved
it. The second week, I had a sick toddler,
then I got sick, then it was Christmas so
it’s really been on the backburner. So I
had to try to get out of that little funk and
try to get back to it.How did Christmas impact on your
training?
I didn’t do anything! It wasn’t so much
the Christmas period, because my twin
sister Kim [who is a runner and is doing
the marathon with me] came home for
Christmas. So in the lead-up to Christmas
and the few days after, we did a lot. It
was brilliant, getting up at six o’clock in
the morning, putting on our head torches,
with no one around... it was lovely, just to
get it done and feel really smug about it
while everybody was sleeping. And then
two days after Christmas, my daughter
got an ear infection and that was the end
of that.Has anything come as a surprise in
your training plan so far?
At first, I was so daunted by the whole
experience, I thought, “I can’t believe
I’ve agreed to run a marathon, I can’t
believe I’ve agreed to put it in print for
everybody to read about it” and then I
really enjoyed that first week. Dare I say,
it was a little bit easier than I expected.88 MARCH 2017 womensrunninguk.co.uk