Rachel Birrell – First Marathon, 3:53:28

A mutual friend introduced me to Rachel, to help her prepare for her marathon debut in London in 4 months’ time. 

It would be a big jump up in both training and distance for Rachel, but from our first meeting it was clear she was very driven and willing to put in the hard graft needed. We agreed a target range of 3:45-4 hours based on her paces over shorter distances and the inevitable slowing down that a marathon brings.

On top of running her own business and family life, Rachel had an incredibly busy period during training, with extensive building works taking place meaning a lack of space hampered some of the mobility work, causing some knee pain to kick in. After an initial assessment, I referred Rachel to my sports massage therapist as I didn’t have any availability, and they worked together well to keep on top of this whilst Rachel continued training and we eased off the intensity.

Throughout the training block, we focused on tweaking nutrition and hydration for great long runs and recovery. It was impressive how Rachel got on so diligently with this and made the necessary adjustments, giving me feedback on she found things.

The day arrived and Rachel’s knee pain wasn’t an issue, but hip soreness appeared, likely from the hard descent at mile 3 with a fast pace. Despite this, Rachel battled on and ran a fantastic time of 3:53:28 in her first ever marathon. A great result to be immensely proud of.