Liz Yelling - Marathon runner, Double Olympian & Commonwealth medalist

Tough Girl Challenges is all about motivating and inspiring women and girls. In this episode I interview Liz Yelling. Liz is a British long-distance runner, who excelled in the marathon distance (26.2 miles), and her personal best is a staggering time of 2 hr 28 mins 33 seconds! Liz has competed in two consecutive Olympics Games, Athens and Beijing, she's also a Commonwealth medalist winning a Bronze medal in Melbourne in 2006. During this podcast, Liz talks about how she first got into running, and how she progressed from running cross country at school, to joining an athletics club before becoming a professional and making the transition from 10K races, to marathons. For anyone interesting in running and wanting to understand the mind set of how runners train for the big event. This is the podcast you need to listen to. Liz has a fascinating story to share, its full of highs and lows and during this interview she is very open as she discusses a variety of topics, from confidence, how she trains and what she learnt from training over the years, her mental and physical preparation before races as well as her life after running. Liz has dealt with a lot over her running career and it hasn't always been a smooth road, she's dealt with injury, chronic fatigue, and lack of belief in herself. She talks about overcoming disappointment in her career and how she moved herself forward and handled potentially career ending set backs. Her outlook on life is hugely pragmatic and positive. I personally really enjoyed hearing about her Olympic runs in Athens and Beijing and how she trained and got herself into the best physical and mental state possible so she was ready to do what was needed on the day. For Liz, running will always be a huge part of her life, she now runs for pleasure, taking her children with her. Liz also coaches athletes through, Yelling Performance which she runs with her husband Martin. Here she shares her knowledge of running with complete beginners to more experienced runners. This is an episode not to be missed! Liz is on twitter @girlwhatruns I'm also on twitter @_TOUGH_GIRL. Listen to the podcast and send us a tweet! It would be great to hear from you. Please checkout the website - ToughGirlChallenges.com and subscribe to the newsletter to be kept updated of future podcasts and challenges.