How they train: Clara Evans

The Welsh marathon record-holder outlines her routine and talks about building performance, yet keeping a relaxed outlook

Every athlete’s race preparation is unique, based on their personality, practicalities and superstitions. For some, it’s simply laying out their kit. For others it’s studying spreadsheet data, documenting race splits and deliberating potential ‘what ifs?’ For Clara Evans – and for the Valencia Marathon in December specifically – it was a case of figuring out a more approximate plan of action.

“What pace do I need to run to hit 73 minutes at halfway,” she asked her partner the night before the race. “He said: ‘It’s this pace per mile’ and I was like, ‘Okay, so that’s kind of what I need to do’.”

Fortunately, the 30-year-old Cardiff-based athlete – who finished ninth in the 2022 Commonwealth Games marathon – is not one to sweat the small stuff.

Having admittedly struggled in the latter stages of the Seville Marathon earlier in the year where she ran 2:29:24 (a personal best at the time), Evans made tweaks to her Valencia build-up to focus on a strong period of running from 30km to the finish. Her 35km-40km split turned out to be the quickest of her race, testament to the hard work put in with coach Chris Jones.

She ultimately ran a significant lifetime best and Welsh record of 2:25:01 to secure the Olympic Games qualifying standard and go seventh on the British all-time list. “I’ve not really thought about it too much, but when I do, I’m like: ‘Did I actually run that time?’” she says.

The vast contrast between her life as an athlete and her full-time ‘day’ job as a transport planner goes some way to explaining her laid-back approach. “When you go back to work it brings you back down to earth pretty quickly,” she laughs. “I only have a small team of five… they ask questions, but they don’t really care, it’s more out of politeness.”

Evans isn’t new to running; she has clocked up many miles (and solid performances) across road, track, cross country and fell over the last decade, but linking up with Jones in late 2018 was a
game-changer in terms of performance, over the longer distances in particular.

In addition to substantially lowering her marathon best in Valencia, her half-marathon best – 74:13 when they first started working together – now stands at 70:17 (Berlin 2022). She has represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World…