Science- Bella Ruffell is strong and hates running but decided to take part in the 2023 London Marathon.
- Ruffell started training in January and managed to run a half-marathon by February.
Bella Ruffell hates running.
She loves fitness (mainly boxing and weight-lifting), is strong, and has been working out consistently for years. But running? Not a fan.
"I've done so much exercise in my life, I still can't fucking go on a run," she said. "I hate it, it's horrible."
However, Ruffell, 31, decided to run the 2023 London Marathon on April 23, something she's always wanted to do at least once. She shared the first six weeks of her training journey from the start of the year with Insider, to show how keeping to New Year's resolutions can be challenging.
Ruffell told Insider she was "terrified" at the beginning of January. "I keep thinking, 'What have I done?' But I'm also so stubborn that it's going to happen."
Ruffell had various set-backs, including impromptu work trips and illness, but she still managed to run a half-marathon just six weeks into training.
Shortly after, Ruffell had to withdraw from the 2023 marathon and delay until next year after fracturing her foot and being diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, where the ligament that runs from your heel to your big toe — called the plantar fascia — tightens and shortens as a result of leg and foot muscles and tendons being tight.
Although disappointed, she's determined to conquer the challenge and run the race.
Ruffell first got into fitness to rebuild confidence after surviving sexual assault
Ruffell had entered the ballot for the London Marathon every year for years, but never got a place. She was drunk on holiday in Mexico last year when she applied for charity places.
"It was very key to me that if I was going to do it, I was going to do it about something that I really cared about," she said.
This is what led Ruffell to the UK-based charity Refuge, which supports women and children experiencing domestic violence.
As a rape survivor, and having been in an abusive relationship in her mid-twenties, Ruffell wanted to run for Refuge.
Through support networks and therapy, Ruffell said she's fine now, while fitness became an escape from the assault.
Ruffell was sporty growing up but by her early 20s would only go to the gym occasionally to use the elliptical machine. After the assault, a friend encouraged her to get back into fitness.
She tried a few workout classes in London, and for the past four years has been regularly doing boxing, functional fitness, and powerlifting at a gym called Manor.
"I needed a place that I could go with people that didn't know everything about my life, a space that was just mine, and Manor really gave that to me," Ruffell said.
Being accepted for the marathon was both exciting and daunting
Ruffell was accepted for the marathon last fall, but said she didn't plan to start training properly until the new year.
She was excited to achieve her goal but not necessarily looking forward to the training, having always struggled with shin pain.
During the COVID lockdown a couple of years earlier, Ruffell actually ran a half-marathon, but hadn't run since.
Ruffell said she distinctly remembers finishing the half-marathon and thinking: "People do that twice, what is wrong with them?"
With her goal being to simply complete the marathon, avoiding the pressure of aiming for a specific finishing time, Ruffell started slightly upping her cardio at the end of 2022, to a point where she could run about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) "at a slow pace," she said.
A personal trainer friend created a running training plan for Ruffell, aiming for three runs a week: one interval run, alternating between running and walking, one shorter, and one longer to be done at weekends. The runs got progressively longer each week.
Ruffell faced illness and impromptu trips in January
After starting training in January, she realized she preferred the interval format — for example, walking for two minutes, running for three — because they felt more manageable, even though the walking sections would gradually decrease and the running would increase.
It wasn't long before Ruffell hit a few obstacles: she got a chest infection, and had to try and balance training round a weekend away, her birthday, an impromptu work trip to Spain, and a skiing holiday in France, all in January.
The chest infection "wiped her out" but she tried to stick to her training plan, sometimes running on a treadmill which she found "bloody boring."
One day, Ruffell was supposed to run 13 kilometers (eight miles). She did nine kilometers (5.5 miles) (in intervals of five minutes running and 30 seconds walking) before breaking to go to the toilet, at which point she began "hacking up my lungs" and had to stop.
When it came to skiing, Ruffell's coach advised she just take the week off running and enjoy herself.
She got back on track in February
In February, Ruffell had more time to train but it didn't get easier.
One evening she came home from a run and cried. "I did run 10 kilometers (six miles), but I have IBS and I got 2.5 kilometers in and realized it was going to be an absolute disaster if I didn't find a toilet in the next five minutes," she said. Ruffell was also coughing a lot due to her asthma.
It was incredibly hard, everything hurt, and the realization that she had to do four times as much was overwhelming, she said.
But Ruffell knew she'd have moments like that, and 10 kilometers was more than she could've done a month earlier.
She also missed the boost she got from her normal training, which she cut down to once or twice a week around her three to four weekly runs.
Ruffell ran a half-marathon before getting injured
In mid-February, Ruffell was proud to have run 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) (just under a half-marathon) in two hours and 13 minutes.
Ruffell maintained her intervals of four minutes running and one minute walking, but about 6.5 kilometers down, her stomach "completely went" and she had to find a bathroom.
"It was the last five that really killed me though," Ruffell said, as it was up-hill, dark and cold, and she didn't feel good.
Ruffell said she knew it was going to be hard, "I'm just not sure I thought it was going to be this hard."
By increasing her distances, Ruffell was continually challenging herself which meant it always felt difficult.
"You have to wrap your head around the fact that it's never going to feel easier," she said.
Is she likely to get the running bug?
"Absolutely not," Ruffell said. But she's not giving up and very much plans to run the marathon in 2024.