“My auntie moved here when she was 18 and she’s 75 now so she’s very much an American now. She married an amazing guy from Boston and he has become my life mentor. He was on track to become a professional ice hockey player and had a really horrific injury, where he couldn’t walk or play sports any longer. He ended up going into finance and found a beautiful life for his family. But, he never took his eyes of sport. His kids came along and one of them was a baseball player, another was a runner. I was on holiday with them at a really bad time in my life personally. My parents told me I needed to spend some time with them in Naples, Florida. I was running every day. I’d just go out and explore. I didn’t care about the pace or distance. My uncle just sat me down and said, ‘You need to channel this passion that you have for running into your career. You haven’t once spoken to me about your career. You’re 26-years-old and supposedly have this great career. It’s not here. I’m not seeing it. The passion you have burning in you is in fitness and in running. You need to go home and figure out how you’re going to make that your life.’ On my way home, I wrote my resignation letter for work and handed it in the next day before I enrolled in a personal training business diploma. I started two months later.”

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Through her work with Peloton, Becs Gentry has become one of the most recognizable treadmill instructors around the world and encourages hundreds of people to run. She recently sat down with us to give us a full deep dive on her upbringing in Worcester, England as a multi-sport athlete with an emphasis on tennis. She shares how and why she left that behind to focus on athletics (the beautiful British version of saying track and field).

Now Becs boasts a 2:50 marathon personal best. How did she get there? what she did before she got into the fitness space, why she rarely competes in races, her foray into ultra marathons and much more including her recent string of personal bests at the Hong Kong Marathon and Boston Marathon. A few insights into the 2019 Speed Project (a 340 mile unsanctioned relay race from LA to Vegas) are also sprinkled in.

Enjoy the conversation.

This is Runners of NYC. A biweekly podcast from CITIUS MAG. Hosts Leigh Anne Sharek and Chris Chavez look to bring you many of the untold stories behind luminaries and legends that make up New York City’s running culture. You can catch the latest episode of the podcast on iTunes so subscribe and leave a five-star review. We are also on Spotify!

You can follow Becs on Instagram here.

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