Tilly Ramsay is one of the most joyful people you'll meet. She's also quietly one of the most competitive. You probably know her as Gordon Ramsay's daughter, or from her cookery shows. What you might not know is that she beat both her parents in a triathlon, set her 10K PB mid-marathon on her first attempt, and is already wondering what scary thing to sign up to next.
This week on The Runna Podcast, Tilly joins Anya to talk about her 16-week marathon training block, the mindset behind it, and why running and cooking demand more of the same things than anyone expects.
"If They Can Do It, Why Can't I?"
Tilly grew up watching her parents race. Her siblings all ran marathons before her. For years, she'd been telling herself: my time is coming. But the road to the start line wasn't smooth. A place that was cancelled. A stress fracture that pulled her out at the worst moment. Six years of near-misses before she finally crossed a finish line that meant everything.
What drove her through all of it wasn't just fitness, it was something much simpler: a refusal to decide something was impossible before she'd actually tried it.
It's the same quality that took her to Strictly Come Dancing as the youngest ever contestant, to culinary school in Ireland without telling her parents, to a T100 triathlon, then a 70.3 Ironman. She sees a challenge, and she commits.
"When I Commit, I Give It My All"
Tilly is clear about how she approaches things: half-heartedly isn't an option.
When she signed up for the marathon, she showed up for every session she could. She went out in the rain. She did the long runs. Her mum joined her on weekends. Her boyfriend cycled alongside her for three hours on her longest run just so she'd have company.
None of it was glamorous. But she says the more she put into training, the more she enjoyed race day, and race day, for Tilly, went better than she ever expected.
She ran negative splits on her debut, hit her 10K PB in the back half of a marathon, and crossed Tower Bridge feeling good. It doesn't always go like that. She knows she was lucky. But she also put the work in.
What Cooking and Running Actually Have in Common
This is one of the best parts of the conversation, and it's not what you'd expect.
Tilly draws a straight line between the kitchen and the start line: both demand practice, both punish shortcuts, and in both, the mistakes are often where the most learning happens.
Her dad told her before culinary school: it doesn't matter if you make a mistake, just don't make the same one twice. She applies the same logic to running. A bad session, a hard mile, a race that doesn't go to plan - they're not failures, they're information.
And in both worlds, she says, if you're always in your comfort zone, you're probably not improving.
Keeping the Joy in Food - Without Making It a Chore
Tilly didn't overhaul her diet for marathon training. She cooked what she fancied, kept meals simple, and ate pizza every Sunday after her long run. That wasn't accidental. She made a conscious choice: if she was going to be disciplined in one area, she wasn't going to take the joy out of the other. Food stayed fun. The running was where she pushed.
The result? She looked forward to getting home after every session. And that, she says, made the whole 16 weeks sustainable.
Listen to the full episode to hear her three go-to meals from training, and why good food doesn't have to be complicated.
"Running Owes Nothing to Anyone"
One of Tilly's best moments in the episode comes when she's asked what she'd tell a beginner on day one. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Don't expect a linear journey. Trust the process, even when a short run feels harder than a long one, even when progress feels invisible.
Running, she says, gives back exactly what you put in. No more, no less. And once you understand that, it stops feeling daunting and starts feeling like yours.