How they train: Lily Partridge

We hear from a marathon runner who is intent on making up for lost time after a lengthy injury absence

It reads a bit like a film plot. The year is 2018 and Lily Partridge runs a personal best of 2:29:24 to finish eighth in the London Marathon. It’s the fastest time by a female British athlete that year and would have been good enough to rank in the top three for the previous three years.

Time stands still for Partridge, but the world around her changes. The year is now 2023 and the UK lead is 2:22:17. What was once good enough for top 20 on the British all-time list has now dropped to 28th. A once lauded performance – still her best ever – cast off into the archives.

“I remember saying at one point that I felt like I’d fallen into a coma and woken up in a different generation,” says the 32-year-old. “There’s just been such a jump [in marathon performances over that period].”

For what it’s worth, her own behind-the-scenes story is equally compelling.

Partridge, who has represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the road, track and in cross country, will line up in December’s Valencia Marathon after a lengthy return to fitness following surgery for Haglund’s deformity (an abnormality of the bone and soft tissues in the foot) in 2021. Not one to shy away from competition, her last two years have included a busy race schedule and a necessary reality check.

“I know some people won’t race until they’re absolutely ready to go and firing on all cylinders, but in my head, I was like: ‘That could be bloody ages’,” she laughs. “If I’d taken that approach I probably wouldn’t have raced until this summer. To me that wasn’t an option because I love racing and I get a lot from it. Obviously you want races to go well, but I felt quite realistic for a lot of the time about where I was at. My goal was just to get back enjoying it and to stay healthy.

“It’s been fun, but it’s also been quite hard because the goalposts of my fitness have been moving forward constantly. You think: ‘Is today going to be the day when that move forward comes again?’. Every time it feels a little bit like you’re rolling the dice, like: ‘Am I where I’ve been for the last couple of weeks, or have I moved on again?’. It’s been quite fun to figure it out, but some of those races (Partridge highlights the Big Half as one in particular she got ‘a little bit wrong’) have been…