Rachel Ann Beaton

#TeamRed Athlete Rachel Ann Beaton – The Running Girl

Running ‘runs’ in Beaton family
“I don’t take advice. I’m too egotistical for that. I gain knowledge through experiential learning, which means I fail forward.” – Rachel Ann Beaton 
ATHLETE PROFILE
  • Name: Rachel Ann Beaton, The Running Girl
  • Marathon PB: 3h31
  • Nutrition sponsor: Biogen
  • IG: _rachelannbeaton_

Running ‘runs’ in Rachel Ann Beaton’s family, which means she has been a runner on and off since her early teens. 

“However, I had always seen it as more of a chore than a joy, and have only recently fallen in love with running.” 

Despite her delay in embracing the suffer fest, Rachel has already made significant ground, most recently finishing her first Comrades in an incredibly impressive time of 8h39m42s for a coveted Bill Rowan medal. She also has a marathon PB of 3h31, which is looking to improve at the 2024 Cape Town Marathon. 

Going her own way

What’s even more impressive is that Rachel is self-trained. Having discovered her passion for running, Rachel has chosen to forge her own path, planning her training strategy based on common sense and some desktop research on Google. 

“I don’t take advice. I’m too egotistical for that. I gain knowledge through experiential learning, which means I fail forward.”

Rachel plans her training week by week, depending on what race she is training for. “Right now, I’m working on speed so my mileage is a little lower than before, with more tempo and speed sessions.” 

She adds in Pilates for core, mobility and flexibility to become a stronger, better runner. “However, I am very inconsistent. I try to do at least three 20-minute sessions per week but some weeks I do seven and some weeks I do none. It all depends on how busy I am.”

Rachel says she fuels her motivation by feeding off the attention and clout she gets from social media, which keeps her going.

Rachel manifests this attention and clout on her The Running Girl Instagram account. She has built a significant community of over 18,000 followers, with her unique brand of running content and her strong personality and views. 

“I work in social media and always wanted to have a personal social media presence but I was unsure about what to post as there was nothing I truly loved and was passionate enough about, until I discovered my passion for running.”

Rachel says her commitment to running and content creation is fuelled by the ‘Rachel ABCs’ – Attention, Biogen and Clout. It’s what gives “the big dog” its bite.

For anyone else looking to become a successful content creator, Rachel recommends finding a niche within the running niche. 

“Take a unique approach to how you present your content, show your personality and, most importantly, be authentic.”

During her journey to becoming a recognised runfluencer and a Comrades finisher, Rachel says she has learnt a few lessons, the most important of which is, “it’s never that serious”!

Taking it too seriously was a mistake she made initially by trying to get better too fast. “Rome wasn’t built in a day and this ain’t the Olympics, so it really is never that serious.”

After runs, Rachel likes to sip on a Biogen Recovergen shake (chocolate flavour mixed with milk) while sitting in an epsom salts bath with her ‘drinks and drugs’ playlist blaring.

The other Biogen supplements in her plan come mainly from the Perform X range. These include:

Rachel doesn’t follow any specific diet plan but tries to eat intuitively. “I put a special focus on trying to get protein into my main meals. I find that as a runner, I naturally want to eat a lot of carbs so I have to be conscious about the protein intake.”

Quick Facts
  • Preferred training shoes? Adidas Supernovas (easy runs), Puma Nitro Deviate 3 (long runs/tempo sessions), and Nike Alphafly 3s (speed sessions)
  • Preferred racing shoes? Nike Alphafly 3s
  • GPS watch/activity tracker? Garmin forerunner 55
  • Favourite training session? Long run
  • Favourite training route? Muizenberg to Glen Cairn and back (about 15km) in Cape Town.
  • Solo or group run? Long runs with a group, all other runs solo.
  • What’s in your race go-bag? Biogen Energy Gels, Biogen Cytogen Racing Mix, iPhone (for clout chasing), a peak cap and big dog energy.

Shop Rachel’s Supplement Stack: