Anya Culling: Everything you need to know about rising marathon star
Having knocked two hours off her marathon time in the space of three years, Anya Culling has risen to meteoric stardom in the running world, with the 27-year-old Londoner's current PB standing at a not-too-shabby 2:34:45.
Unlike fellow rising star Rose Harvey, who ran her first marathon in under three hours, Culling's first 26.2-mile outing at the 2019 London Marathon resulted in a time of 4:34:23. While Culling's debut was much slower than Harvey's, her time was still very respectable for a novice runner – especially since she had only taken up running the year before.
But nobody, Culling included, anticipated that she would return to the London Marathon just three years later and complete the same course in a blazing 2:36:21. This stellar performance qualified Culling for an England vest, which she wore at both the Copenhagen and Berlin Marathons in 2023. She then returned to home turf for the 2024 London Marathon, which she completed in 2:44:00.
School days
Although she had played hockey and cricket in her youth, Culling was never an accomplished runner. 'I was forced to do cross country in school, but I was never the best,' she tells RW. 'I remember walking the 400m on sports day and my parents thinking: "Anya, what are you doing?"'
Her running success has also caused bemusement among her former PE teachers, too. When she returned to her first school recently to give an inspirational talk, teachers told Culling that they 'never guessed it was going to be you [running in an England vest]'.
And, yet in 2018, at the age of 21, Culling found herself running laps of a local field to 'get healthy again'. She then went on to run the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Summer 10K Series in 55:01 that year, followed by the Victoria Park Half Marathon in 2:01:05.
Then, in 2019, she threw herself into (albeit unstructured) marathon training, having taken up a charity place for the London Marathon in support of Outward Bound. earning herself a 4:34:23 finish time in London while running for the charity place for Outward Bound. Before the race, which she completed in 4:34:23, her longest training run had been a two-hour outing with her mum cycling alongside her.
Things started to dramatically change when lockdown hit in 2020, though. Culling moved temporarily back to her family home in Norfolk and found 'solace in the quiet of running', gradually building up her speed and endurance.
Athlete transformation
By 2021, Culling was a completely different runner, smashing out a 3:05:10 finish at the Manchester Marathon while working full-time in advertising and fitting training around her 9-5 job.
'I didn't do any races between the first one in London and then Manchester two years later, so I had no idea that I had made any sort of progress,' she says. 'I didn't expect to do close to three hours. I didn't have any idea I was good. I didn't even go out with a pace in mind. But getting close to three hours was the turning point for me.'
Now with a clear goal in mind – to break three hours – Culling focused all her energy on the 2021 Valencia Marathon just two months later. Here, she racked up an impressive time of 2:52:36 and successfully achieved her ambition.
But she wasn't done yet. Her steady progress continued and she received a 'huge confidence boost' at the 2022 Rome Marathon, where she was the seventh female and first non-elite finisher in a time of 2:43:38. 'I realised that this wasn't a fluke. I was the first European and 39th overall.'
The pivotal point in Culling's running career came later that year at the 2022 London Marathon, where she was the second British female finisher and achieved an England Athletics-qualifying time of 2:36:21. Culling was now on the radar of the athletics world, with Athletics Weekly voting her the Most Improved UK Road Runner.
Elite performance
Running in an elite vest for the first time, Culling put in an exceptional PB performance at the 2023 Copenhagen Marathon, running 2:34:45 while paced by her coach at the time, Nick Bester. She followed this up with another strong run at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, clocking 2:35:42. Between these two races, she was able to give up her advertising job after signing a contract with sportswear brand Lululemon.
Her work as a brand ambassador and Runna coach has tightened her schedule over the past 12 months, which resulted in a slower performance while racing in the elite field at the 2024 London Marathon. Crossing the line in 2:44:00, Culling acknowledged that 'saying yes to every opportunity got in the way of training' and her busy life was not conducive to an improved performance.
'There are so many sacrifices you have to make to do a really quick time,' she continues. 'I trained well, but I knew London wasn't going to be a PB.'
Culling, who is now coached by James Thie, has her sights set on Valencia Marathon at the end of the year and says she is knuckling down to achieve a new PB.
Naked running
When Culling first started running, she had no way of tracking her training other than by looking at the time. 'I had no Strava and no fitness watch. I would just go on dog walks and run bits.'
Going into her first marathon, Culling therefore had no way of tracking her pace, or even knowing what it should be – she just ran to perceived effort. That said, she has always kept her running routes simple, running either loops of a small field back home in Norfolk, or circuits of Battersea Park near where she now lives.
'I'm always the Local Legend of the park on Strava,' she says. 'It's a 3km loop. The most I have done there is 40km!'
Club community
Joining a running club during lockdown was a game changer for Culling, as it was the first time she had trained with a coach, run with others and had a set training schedule in place.
'Everything I did was with these people that were runners, and all my social life was running. I would run every single day with someone, which kept me accountable.'
Incorporating track sessions and long group weekend runs into her training enabled Culling to quickly progress and discover her potential. The social aspect of running is a powerful pull for Culling, and she still does most of her training runs with her club.
Running backwards
Unlike most distance runners, Culling didn't start with middle distances and work her way up. She concentrated on the marathon distance for the first three years of her running career before gradually working her way down to shorter races.
'I did two half marathons, two 10Ks and then I found parkrun,' she recalls. 'I worked my way down. I wasn't used to any lactic acid build up, so it was really hard to do the shorter distances.'
Culling now has a number of 5K, 10K and half marathon wins under her belt and holds the female course record for both the Norwich 10K and the Battersea Park Half Marathon – two races held in both of her hometowns.
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