Marathon Talk Episode 28: Calli Thackery

Picture the scene: it's your first ever marathon, and you almost break a national record - that's how you announce yourself onto the world's stage and make a statement!

Barring Paula Radcliffe's time in London, Calli Thackery's 2:22:11 is the fastest marathon time ever run by a female athlete from the UK, and as she sets her sights on the Paris Olympic Games, she joins us to tell us the story behind the run that's been 15 years in the making.

Elsewhere, we're gearing up for the TCS New York City Marathon, as Letesenbet Gidey prepares for her Majors debut, the women's wheelchair race features four fierce frontrunners, and Marcel Hug prepares to make history and complete an unprecedented clean sweep for 2024.

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In this episode of Marathon Talk

0:00 - Martin’s dinner with the stars, Deena’s joyful exploration, and the art of leaf peeping

9:00 - A roundup of Deena’s induction to the New York Road Runners’ Hall of Fame, the stacked lineup for NYC, and Marcel Hug’s hunt for a clean sweep

20:00 - Calli Thackery takes us through her route to running the UK’s 2nd fastest women’s marathon EVER, setting her sights on Paris, and enjoying running for what it is, rather than goal-chasing

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Episode keywords

Marathon talk, abbott world marathon majors, marathon running, distance running, endurance marathon, marathon training, endurance training, london marathon, chicago marathon, new york marathon, six star finisher, calli thackery, UK women’s marathon record

Episode highlights
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“I love when you can take your running shoes to a place you don’t know, and find something that you wouldn’t even know was there if you didn’t have your shoes.” - 6:45 - Martin Yelling

“I don’t feel that I’ve made a mark on the NYC Marathon, but that its impression on me is what carried me through the next two decades of performances.” - 13:10 - Deena Kastor

“I love my 5k’s, so in my head it was just nine 5k’s back to back. Having never done the distance before, it was such a great way to break it up.” - 25:55 - Calli Thackery

“It’s been a journey with a lot of trial and error with different distances. I needed to go through them all to get to this point.” - 36:55 - Calli Thackery

“I started taking all these pressures off myself, and that’s when it started clicking for me.” - 54:15 - Calli Thackery

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