Anya Culling: “I knocked two hours off my marathon run PB in three years, which is pretty cool!”

Many of us who take up marathon running later in life might wonder what could have been. Had we just taken it up earlier… Could we have been great? Well, one athlete proving that the journey from complete novice to elite is possible is Anya Culling.

I met the 25-year-old at the launch of SunGod’s new flagship store in London. Culling is an ambassador for the brand and radiates enthusiasm for running and the new life she’s found, in a way that shows she still can’t quite believe the journey she’s been on.

“I started out running like so many people in the Covid lockdown,” she tells me. “I ran my first marathon in 2019 in 4 hours and 34 minutes and I just completely fell in love with the sport. I kept it up and my PB is now 2 hours and 34 minutes, so I knocked off two hours in about three years which was pretty cool”.

Pretty cool?! It’s near impossible for most of us. So what’s the background of one of GB’s best marathon runners? “I’ve always been sporty, I played hockey and cricket but more team sports,” she says.

“I always thought people were bizarre running, I didn’t understand why people did solo sports. I was like ‘why would you run away from home just to run straight back again?’ and this sounds so cliché, but I genuinely feel most at home now when I run.”

“London Marathon’s coming up and it sounds kind of ridiculous and a bit lame but I genuinely feel like London Marathon and running has made me who I am today.

“I looked back at the photos from me doing that first marathon in 2019 and I’m so proud of that Anya, but yeah I was wearing wired headphones and I had no idea what I was doing. It was one of the most painful marathons I’ve ever done in my life!”

That Anya may be fresh in her mind, but the performance and lifestyle she now enjoys is a world away. So from a spark of an idea to competing for Great Britain, what can Culling share to help triathletes looking to go from amateur to representing their country? Plus, why is triathlon now calling her name?

Also read: Olympian Alex Yee on training for his 2025 TCS London Marathon debut.

10 ways to fall in love with hard training

Here are Anya Culling’s top 10 tips on how to go from zero to hero…

1. Embrace the lifestyle

I think the crazy thing might be it turns out I don’t love marathons but I love everything that comes along with it! I love being a bit healthier. I love meeting my friends for coffee or jogging before breakfast in the morning or just moving my body. You don’t have to do these crazy hard challenges to enjoy it.

2 Make lifestyle changes

I definitely partied far too hard before I started marathon running. I was quite unhealthy, working a corporate job and on unsocial hours. And now I am a bit of a hermit and I sleep a lot and I eat a lot and I love it… I wouldn’t change it for the whole world. I didn’t know you could really do marathon running as a career, so I genuinely was just running for all the things it brought my life. The times came secondary.

3 Be competitive

I’ve grown up in a very male-dominant life, so I’ve always compared myself against men. It wasn’t until I put myself against the females that I was like like ‘oh I could be really competitive here!’. Then I think when I started beating men, that was when it all shifted.

4 Choose your races carefully

I ran the Rome marathon and I purely chose that marathon because it was like a nice place to have pizza and Aparols after! I came top European female though and now I choose marathons based on how flat they are, like Manchester. My mum’s not happy! It’s not quite as glamorous as say Venice, but that’s what I’ve got to do now.

5 Enjoy your success

It’s easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself for something like that whereas I kind of made sure I remembered ‘you’ve done all the hard work and like you really earned yourself this spot, so you’ve just got to enjoy it now. This race is just the icing on the top of the cake’. I tried to not put too much pressure on it and soak up every single moment.

6 Get the right kit

Getting a sports watch was really helpful. I have a Coros at the moment, just so that I can monitor my pace. I think the best way to monitor your fitness really is through monitoring your heart rate. Also important to me are sunglasses and the best running shoes I can have, that I feel most comfortable in. Ultimately, if you look good, you feel good and you race good. All of those things that improve you by 1% slowly add up.

7 Keep trying something new

My partner is a triathlete so I naturally I’m gonna dip my foot in that too [Anya has done several races so far]! I found it so nice not being that great at it and I became obsessed with that progress. I could hardly swim at the start and could just about ride a bike not to fall off… obviously I could do the running but seeing that sharp progression in the other two disciplines becomes so addictive. I loved that you could be bad at one of the legs and then you can pull it back, whereas in a marathon if you get yourself in a hole it’s really hard to come back from that.

8 Ask for help

One year I’ll go all into the triathlon and see what I can really do if I give it my all! I actually have already signed up for 10 swimming lessons straight after London marathon, just to get my technique improved.

9 Do what’s sustainable

I am so dedicated and passionate about sport in general. But sometimes your pace targets or just the amount of hours that you’re training just isn’t sustainable. So then I take a step back and just do what is sustainable for right now and then slowly build that up. Before you know it you’ll be hitting dream paces and dream volume that you couldn’t do before.

10 Be consistent

Consistency is the only way you’ll really like improve so that’s what I’m going to say is my top tip. Be consistent!

Read more: what’s the average human running speed?

Lead image: Anya Culling of Great Britain competes in the Women’s elite race during the 2024 TCS London Marathon on April 21, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)