Mara Yamauchi (1973) is one of UK's fastest female marathon runners of all time, with a Personal Best of 2:23:12. She is also a two time Olympian.

She was born in Oxford but lived in Kenya until she was eight years old.

Mara joined the British Foreign Office in 1996, but she kept on running and won the English National Cross Country Championship in 1998.

From 2003 to 2006 she started working part-time as a diplomat, while doing serious training and trying to become a world class athlete.

In 2006, she became a full-time athlete at the age of 33, first in Japan, then in London.

After retiring, she has been working as a commentator, coach and writer.

This year her book came out: Marathon Wisdom, An Elite Athlete's Insights on Running and Life. I absolutely LOVED it and read it twice in one week! 💙

Marathon Wisdom offers 42.195 valuable insights, all backed up by Mara's experiences as an elite marathon runner. It is also good read for non-native speakers of English: the chapters are short and the language is straightforward.

What we talk about:

- Mara's childhood in Nairobi (Kenya)

- Her childhood dream of becoming a world class athlete

- How she learned Japanese and the Japanese word "Gaman"

- Distance running in Japan and the lessons she learned from Japanese runners

- Her insightful book

- Her love for Parkrun

You can buy Marathon Wisdom, an Elite Athlete's Insights on Running and Life on Amazon, www.bookshop.org, Waterstones, Meyer and Meyer Sport and via Mara Yamauchi's website: https://www.marayamauchi.com

For more info on Mara Yamauchi:

https://www.marayamauchi.com

She is also on twitter, linkedin, instagram and facebook

Huge THANK YOU to Mara Yamauchi for sharing her remarkable story with me. 😌

If you want to find out how you can improve your English, listening or reading about running stories, visit my web page and hit the subscribe button: https://englishforthelongrun.com

Bye for now, and enjoy English for the long run!

Living Life by Scott Holmes Music