Dead last on school sports day in the 1,500m, Rose Harvey hardly seemed destined to be an Olympian.
Nor when she joined the rowing club at university predominantly for the Wednesday night parties, nor for that matter when she became a lawyer.
But Covid struck, she lost her job and decided to train for an Ironman with fiance Charlie. With pools and gyms then shutting, she revised her target to running and making the Surrey County team.
Harvey never made it but, just two years since turning professional, will run for Britain in Paris in the marathon.
“I am proud to say I was last at school sports day,” she said. “Hopefully inspiration to any children reading that you don’t have to be brilliant at everything — just enjoy sport, find your passion and the rest will follow.
“At university, I joined the rowing club, mainly for the Wednesday night parties! I am so lucky to have had a very normal experience of school, university, and a career.
“Sport at a young age can be a high-pressure environment. I feel like I got the partying out of my system and now have no sense of missing out when I’m training hard and getting early nights.”
I feel incredibly lucky to be going to the Olympics this year... I never dreamed or let myself believe it could happen
Had it not been for the pandemic and her redundancy, in all likelihood she would never have become an Olympian at the age of 31.
“Just two years ago, I was a full-time lawyer in the City, so I feel incredibly lucky to be going to the Olympics this year,” she said. “I never dreamed or let myself believe it could happen.”
Surrey selection was the initial target, but her first race of note was the 2021 Cheshire Marathon, which she completed in 2hr 30min 59sec and earned selection for England’s half-marathon team.
From there, her “lockdown project snowballed”. She ran the Seville Marathon, impressing enough to get a DM message on Instagram from Puma and the offer of a professional contract, allowing her to resign from her relatively new legal job.
At the 2022 London Marathon, she was the fastest British finisher and set a PB at last year’s Chicago Marathon of 2:23.21, the fifth best by a British runner of all time.
Her London run was all the more impressive as she was hit by a car in training the week before, which she kept secret from everyone.
Harvey said: “It was a tough week with a very bruised left knee, but it ended happily.
“I know I’ve had a very different journey to most other professional athletes, but I do also believe my law career gave me a lot of transferrable skills in becoming a professional athlete.
“You have to be able to keep your head under pressure, have perspective and a good amount of resilience.”
Harvey has been gearing up for these Games with altitude training in the French Pyrenees.
She admitted: “If someone said to me four years ago I would be preparing for the Olympics, I would have told them they were mad.
“But there are many ways to attain most goals if you’re happy to put in the work, take the sacrifices and commit.”
