WARRIOR
“I DON’T THINK I WOULD HAVE DONE LOVE ISLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE WITHOUT HAVING RUN LONG DISTANCES”
It’s been a busy few years for LoveIslandcompetitor, Priya Gopaldas. She’s managing to juggle ultrarunning with her medical studies andthe aftermath of a summer in the spotlight. She tells us how running helps her cope
Words: Rachel Ifans
Priya Gopaldas got into ultrarunning after she became obsessed with reading the books of others who’d gone before her. Before lockdown happened, she’d often as not be hanging out in the running section of her local bookshop, flicking through and buying book after book from the likes of Scott Jurek, David Goggins and Nick Butter. She loved losing herself in their stories, being inspired by their resilience and dreaming one day of maybe achieving similar things herself.
She explains: “I particularly loved North by Jurek and Running The World by Nick Butter which describes his attempt to run a marathon in every country in the world. I was also inspired by books like Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. He’s a Navy SEAL who’s run ultras and done incredible fitness challenges. I found that reading his book helped me build my own mental resilience.”
“I’LL REMEMBER THE LAST COUPLE OF KILOMETRES OF MY FIRST 100K ULTRA FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE”
Whether you know ultrarunner Priya will depend on whether you watched last year’s Love Island. We’ll talk later about how running helped her cope with the media attention, criticism and abuse she got following her appearance on the show, but for now, let’s get back to running.
It was only a few years after poring over the books of her ultra heroes that Priya herself was crossing the finish line – and as the first woman no less. “I’ll remember the last couple of kilometres of my first 100K ultra for the rest of my life,” she says. “It was about 12 hours in and I remember realising that I only had a couple of kilometres left. It felt like one of my biggest achievements – and still does! I’d wanted to do something like that for years and I think all the emotion came out there and then. The crying took me by surprise but I made sure to wipe my tears away before I got to the finish line,” she laughs. And when this issue of Women’s
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