The Scottish Mail on Sunday

I KNOW I’LL GET THE VIRUS

Olympic hopeful put running on hold to work on Covid ward

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IN normal times, Eleanor Davis would have been on the elite start line of the London Marathon this morning. Instead, she will be facing up to something far more intense. Her other career as a part-time doctor has typically sat beneath her aspiration­s to run for Britain, but now that balance has been skewed drasticall­y in favour of shifts on the Covid wards of Stockport’s Stepping Hill Hospital.

That is where she will find herself again today in the heroic struggle against a virus that has had implicatio­ns that reach far beyond sport. It is surely in that brutal setting where she will achieve her fuller legacy for, while she felt her chances of Olympic selection this year were remote, it would be nigh on impossible for any athlete to match what she is currently doing away from the roads.

The details were shared in a sobering yet heartening discussion with Sunday newspapers, as she

made sense of global events that saw the London Marathon postponed until October and her priorities turned totally upside down.

‘All plans went to pot, basically,’ she said. ‘I’m normally part-time as a doctor so I can focus on my running but I have had to tip the balance the other way. Whereas before I was a running doctor now I am a doctor who runs.

‘It has been difficult. I have seen some heartbreak­ing days but there are also some uplifting moments. I have seen some care and compassion that I will take with me for the rest of my career, so it’s not all bad.

‘Being on a Covid ward, there are difficult phone calls you have to make. But I guess for every difficult phone call there is a nice one when I am ringing to say the patient is getting better and we are hoping to discharge in a few days. Those conversati­ons are really nice and when a patient leaves the wards with their relatives it’s so lovely to see.’

The stark realities for frontline staff are laid bare in Davis’s suspicion it is inevitable she will contract the virus at some point.

‘I am generally not fearful when I am in hospital,’ she said. ‘From personal experience, there have been no problems with PPE here but I guess each day I do wake up feeling quite lucky that I am still well considerin­g I have had so much exposure. My wife is an A&E consultant (at Manchester Royal) so our house is probably quite a hot spot. We have been lucky to stay well so far.

‘I worry a bit because it can be so harsh on the respirator­y system and how I might recover to get back into running.

‘But at the minute, it is not a priority, so it is not a huge worry. At the minute I am kind of expecting to get it at some point, so it is when rather than if, I guess.’

Davis believes the postponeme­nt of the Olympics could work in her favour. She ranked 10th in Britain last year after crowning her recent developmen­t with a run of two hours and 33 minutes in Valencia in December. The delay to the Tokyo Games gives time to improve.

‘I suppose having an extra year to prepare could play into my favour,’ she said. ‘Being realistic, would I have made the team this year with all the talent that is there? Probably it was a one-in-a-million chance. It is definitely the most stacked field of British marathon women that the London marathon has ever seen — several people have run under two hours 30 minutes and have the Olympic qualifying time already.

So maybe another year to prepare will give me a better chance. We’ll see. I’d like to get on the GB team. I actually made the first reserve for the world half-marathon and I have definitely got more to give.

‘I am trying to get sub 2:30 and that is definitely within reach.’

Davis will be taking part in the 2.6 Challenge outside of her hospital hours today. It will see her and 11 of Britain’s other leading female marathoner­s do relays of 2.6 miles to raise money for the charity Mind.

‘It has been nice to connect with the other girls I would normally be up against,’ she said. ‘We are all in the same boat at the end of the day. It’s been nice to be in contact with them, to do this relay and pull together a little bit.’

I have seen heartbreak­ing days but there are uplifting moments too

To support Davis’s 2.6 Challenge, please visit justgiving.com/fundraisin­g/britishmar­athonwomen

 ??  ?? JUST WHAT DOCTOR ORDERED: Eleanor’s priorities are changed
JUST WHAT DOCTOR ORDERED: Eleanor’s priorities are changed
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By Riath Al-Samarrai

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