Rose Penfold – Ladies’ Road Race GP Winner
Rose Penfold won the 2024 Edinburgh Athletic Club Road Race Grand Prix. Originally hailing from Somerset in south-west England, she spent a few years working as a doctor in London, before starting a PhD at Edinburgh University in geriatric medicine. She has been a member of our club for two or three years now, and has become a regular presence at the sharp end of races in Scotland.
Recently however, her focus on racing has taken a back seat as she is currently 7 months pregnant. Clearly a huge fan of the sport, she continues to be involved: a recent Saturday schedule for Rose involved a 22-minute ParkRun followed by a 4-hour stint marshalling at the East District cross-country in Bathgate.
I asked Rose if she would give me a few words about her 2024 season, for an article for the newspaper. Rose seems to have a loose definition of “a few words”, but she writes as well as she runs, and the full piece follows below:
I was delighted to win the EAC Road Race Grand Prix this year, snatching the victory by “a handful of points” from my friend and training-buddy Doireann Hughes, who won the trophy last year (read her interview here).
Whereas the past few years have been a mix of good training and racing interspersed with injuries (OK, you might say quite typical for a runner in her 30s), this year is better described as a tale of two halves.
My goal for the first half of the year was the Edinburgh Half Marathon at the end of May, and I started 2024 by building my base on the grass and mud, running the East District XC at Bathgate and National XC at Callendar Park.
I had a solid run at the nationals and was delighted to be part of the winning EAC senior women’s team, led by outstanding performances from Alice Goodall (1st), Nancy Scott (2nd) and Kirsty Walker (4th).
After that, it was time to switch focus to the road. My training at this point consisted of an alternating hill/ reps session on a Tuesday, a longer tempo run on a Thursday with Lewis Orr’s group, a parkrun on a Saturday, and a longer Sunday run, with cross-training on other days to (try to) avoid injury.
After cross-country, I switched to running more sessions on the paths in the Meadows and did some longer races in my build up to Edinburgh Half, including Inverness Half (not my best but not too terrible) and the Tom Scott 10 miler, where I finished just outside my target sub-60 after a steady start, recovering from a viral infection the week before. I found time for some speedwork with the Silverknowes 5k, sneaking into the top-20 with 17:15 (and importantly, a key race in the EAC GP!).
By the time of the Edinburgh Half, I felt in good shape, and ready to go for a PB. Unfortunately, as anyone who ran that day will attest, the weather gods had other ideas, and race day was cold, with heavy rain and a strong headwind for much of the course. Although not a PB day, I felt strong throughout the race and was very happy to finish third, rapidly closing down on the top two in the finishing mile.
Note: Rose actually had the second fastest time on the day, but awards were made based on gun time rather than chip time. With full visibility of who was actually toeing the start line, (as females unfortunately so often don’t get), the race could have been very different…
The second half of the year has looked rather different!
Perhaps even more exciting than a podium at Edinburgh Half, I found out that I was pregnant with our first baby at the end of June and – after declaring only the week before to Lewis that I would be fully committing to every Thursday tempo session for the rest of the summer – I found the nausea and tiredness really challenging, and dropped back to running a few times a week for around 20-30 mins.
Sessions and racing dropped off the agenda! However, I am pleased to say that after the first trimester I began to feel better and have got back to some regular running 3-4 times/ week, including a modified 5k Thursday tempo session and a parkrun most weeks.
I have just entered my third trimester, and I’m now happy just to keep running for as long as I can, with more swimming and yoga. Who knows how things will go in 2025, but I will definitely see a specialist physio and seek some guidance to ensure a safe return to running.
I am very happy to talk to anyone about my experience – recognising that running during pregnancy is a very individual thing and there is no guidebook. I have friends who have found running too uncomfortable throughout their whole pregnancy, and another who completed a 5k parkrun both three days before and three days after giving birth (yes, really!).
I wanted to finish by saying a big thank you to all the club coaches and volunteers who make everything possible, and to my training buddies and teammates who continue to inspire me with their performances. Hope to see you back at the races before too long!
Rose Penfold
