We discuss to the Olympic 800m finalist who now has very completely different targets to purpose for.
Not so way back, Alex Bell’s world revolved round two laps of the observe. The 800m was her focus as she reached the 2021 Olympic ultimate in Tokyo, ran 1:57.66, and spent years competing on the very prime of British middle-distance working.
However, this month, the 32-year-old achieved one thing totally new: 70:02 for 13.1 miles, successful the Amsterdam Half Marathon on her debut on the distance.
“At first I used to be like: ‘What simply occurred?’” she says. “However now it’s sunk in that I’m truly a half-marathon runner.”
Since stepping away from the observe final yr, Bell has thrown herself absolutely into street racing, discovering each type and fulfilment in a brand new surroundings. “It’s been like studying my physique another time,” she stated. “Learn how to get well, gasoline, deal with new paces. It’s all been fairly refreshing.”
Amsterdam had been circled on her calendar for months as her first actual check. “It was the principle purpose for 2025,” she says. “Coaching had been going very well, however I used to be a bit unknown as to what the result could be.”
A breakthrough run on the Vitality 10,000, the place she clocked 31:31 behind winner Eilish McColgan and Jessica Warner-Judd, supplied a glimpse of Bell’s potential. “Earlier than that, I had 72 minutes in my head [for the half marathon],” she stated. “After the 10km, we thought possibly we may purpose larger. Nonetheless, I didn’t count on 70:02. I’m a bit gutted that we did not dip below 70, however that’s simply the athlete in me.”
Whereas victory was welcome, Bell insists it wasn’t the principle purpose. “I simply needed to put down a time and see the place my coaching was at,” she says. “Successful was a bonus. The brand new coaching quantity has been huge for me, however my physique’s tailored very well.”
After years of strain and expectation in elite observe athletics, she speaks about street working with real ease. “It’s like my eyes have been opened once more,” says Bell. “Standing on all these begin strains now, I’ve that pleasure again. That is the sensation I ought to have in all probability been feeling once I was an 800m runner, which for a protracted interval of my profession, I by no means felt. I used to be having the other feeling that I’ve on the roads, which makes me assume I ought to have made this choice quite a bit sooner.”
The shift from 800m to the half-marathon has been a dramatic one, bodily and mentally, however Bell says the change has helped her rediscover the enjoyment in coaching.
“I had a little bit of expertise from cross nation, however eight kilometres is nothing in comparison with what I’m doing now,” she provides. “The restoration facet has been the most important adjustment. There’s little relaxation days now, my physique responds higher to simpler working days. I had a number of Achilles points and decrease limb points in direction of the again finish of my observe profession and it’s mad to assume that I’m doubling greater than I used to be as an 800m runner however my physique is adapting so significantly better to it.”
The choice to maneuver away from the 800m got here from a spot of realism. “I’d squeezed every little thing I may out of it,” says Bell. “I feel I knew in Tokyo after the ultimate that it was in all probability pretty much as good because it was ever going to get. It was a battle after that to attempt to discover motivation after which the politics of the game made me get actually sick of athletics.”
The brand new problem now lies firmly on the roads. Bell has extra races lined up earlier than the tip of the yr, with one other half-marathon seemingly in early 2026 and discuss of pacemaking on the London Marathon to realize expertise forward of an eventual full-marathon debut.
“Hopefully someday I can end my profession doing the London Marathon as a result of one among my very first races I used to be concerned with was the London Mini Marathon.”
In the event you may select one particular person to coach/compete with, previous or current, who wouldn’t it be and why?
It must be Kelly Holmes. She was my inspiration for such a very long time once I was rising up, I all the time regarded as much as her and she or he was the one that acquired me into the game and has since guided and directed me by my profession.
