Welsh runner won British marathon title in October despite an ankle injury but now goes into Friday’s Olympic trials fully fit

Six months ago Natasha Cockram endured an injury-hit build-up to the Virgin Money London Marathon but still finished first British woman home.

Struggling with an ankle injury, she only managed two training runs of eight and five miles in the final three weeks before the race plus, of course, plenty of cross-training. Yet on that damp, cool morning in the British capital she overtook Naomi Mitchell in the closing stages to take the national title in 2:33:19.

The 28-year-old has enjoyed a much better build-up to the British Olympic marathon trials in Kew Gardens on Friday (March 26), though, which makes her one of the leading contenders for Olympic selection.

“It’s been a lot smoother than London,” she told AW this week on her preparations for Friday’s big event. “For quite a few weeks after London (last October) I was just focusing getting healthy again.

“But now I’ve got in all the work I wanted to and have had some good consistency. I’m injury free which is the hardest part coming into a race.”

Cockram was a teenage talent who won multiple Welsh titles and the British under-17 indoor 1500m title before going off the boil for a spell until eventually finding her niche in the marathon.

From 2012-15 she studied at Tulsa University in Oklahoma but emerged with a knee injury that was so bad that medics told her “to reconsider her career choice” because running seriously was out of the question.

“I went from 40 miles a week (as a teenager in Wales) to instantly up to 100 miles a week when I went out there and I was constantly burned out and didn’t really perform,” she remembers.

On returning to the UK she realised she needed an operation. “Luckily I had (health) insurance back in the States so I went back there and had knee surgery, which put me out for a year, then I came back just to keep fit initially,” she says.

“I pretty much gave up running after university and then started up again just for fun and did a few mountain running races. But I began training more and in 2017 I ran 2:49 for the marathon in Dublin then 2:45 in Newport in 2018 off cross training. Then I ran 2:35 in Dublin later that year after getting a coach and training more seriously.”

Cockram has been guided by Texas-based coach Tony Houchin for the past four years and the relationship is working. In Dublin in October 2019 she broke Susan Tooby’s long-standing Welsh marathon record with 2:30:49 despite running with a large bruise on her leg after her horse kicked her on the eve of the race.

That performance armed her with the belief that she could beat the Olympic qualifying time of 2:29:30. Conditions in London did not allow it last October but she remains confident she can do it this week at Kew Gardens.

“As a child I wanted to go to the Olympics but I don’t think it was a realistic view back then. Even at university it wasn’t realistic and even going to the Commonwealths didn’t seem realistic back then,” she says.

“But when I ran 2:35 in Dublin in 2018 – my first with marathon training – I realised I was okay with this and that the Commonwealths wasn’t far off. And when I ran 2:30 I thought ‘maybe we should go for the Olympics’. Initially we were thinking of Paris 2024 but then Tokyo became possible. So the year delay might go in our favour.”

After a demanding job for the Welsh government co-ordinating medicine shortages during the early weeks of the pandemic, more recently she has worked part-time as a researcher for the police. She is from Cwmbran originally but now lives in Norfolk with her partner, who is a power-lifter and often accompanies her on his bike during her training runs.

He will be at Kew Gardens too because each athlete is allowed one helper to assist with drinks and gels on race day. “In London last October we were solo for the whole weekend but for this we will have one person to be with us which will be nice,” she says.

There will be a few absent friends, though. Neither Jess Piasecki, Charlie Purdue or Steph Twell are racing in the trials but Cockram does not feel this will change the dynamic of the race too much.

“I don’t think it’s really changed anything because at the end of the day we’ve still got to get top two and the standard,” she says.

“Regardless of them being in it or not the standard and qualifying criteria doesn’t change at all. It would have been nicer if we were all there to make it a more competitive race and to push it along but there’s so much depth even without them that it shouldn’t change things too much at all.”

On the course itself, Cockram has been watching a video of the route in recent days ahead of checking it out when she arrives into London today (March 25). “I enjoy doing the laps,” she says. “I train on laps so the idea doesn’t bother me.

“Some bends and corners look a little sharp but it’s the same for everybody and if we’re well inside the Olympic standard then a few seconds won’t matter too much.

“Hopefully Friday will also hopefully be the qualifier for the Commonwealth Games (in Birmingham 2022) as well and it’ll be a ‘two in one’ for me.”