Megan becomes fastest woman to run the coastline of Britain

Megan Boxall became the fastest woman to run the coastline of Britain, when she crossed the finish line in Sizewell, Suffolk earlier this month. Now she’s back home in Suffolk, Folk Features catches up with her

Can you remind readers who you are and what you have just managed to achieve?

I am Megan Boxall and I have just become the fastest woman to run the coastline of Great Britain. I ran about 5000 miles in 204 days.

If you had to describe your Run Britain challenge in a paragraph, what would you say?

Run Britain had three main aims. The first was to run 200 marathons in 200 days and become the fastest woman to run the coastline. The second was to celebrate Britain, its communities and its people. And the third was to raise money and awareness for the Samaritans.

And can you remind readers why you wanted to raise funds for the Samaritans in particular?

In 2024, I struggled with a series of quite major setbacks with my mental health, and I relied on The Samaritans a lot. The volunteers at the Samaritans are amazing and do so much to help people in crisis and people going through a tough time. Calling the Samaritans showed me the importance of reaching out and talking to someone. I hope that by raising money and awareness for the charity, I can help encourage others who are struggling to do the same.

Was the epic run more or less challenging than you expected? Were there any lowlights/highlights?

I wouldn’t say it was any more or less challenging. I expected it to be hard, and it was. But I also expected it to be incredible and life changing, and it was. It was definitely more of a mental challenge than a physical one – something that required discipline to break up into chunks and take one day at a time, never looking too far ahead. That definitely helped keep me going.

There were so many highlights. The finish day was amazing and so was the day before, when I saw the finish line at Sizewell for the first time. I also loved the day I ran into Edinburgh, which felt like a huge milestone. And the day o reached John O’Groats and turned south for the first time.

There were also plenty of lowlights, most of them coming on days when the weather was terrible, or days that I was on my own and felt very lonely. The toughest moment was when I was in Hull and felt overwhelmed by the thought of finishing. It took a lot to keep moving on that day.

Have you learnt anything about yourself in the process? And about others?

It’s hard to describe what I have learned about myself, because it has changed me so much.

I have learned a lot about the power of the mind and the fact that if you believe you can do something, you probably can.

I’ve learned that my body will do more than I thought it could do, if I ask it to.

And mostly I’ve learned about the power of positivity. The fact that being positive, radiates positivity.

How do you feel now you’ve done it? How long does it take to recover from something like that?

It feels great to have finished. I’m so excited for what comes next.

I’ve definitely been trying to take it easy in this first couple of weeks. My body is exhausted and needs some proper rest. But I’m excited about the momentum from this challenge and I want to take advantage of all the opportunities.

Is there still time for people to support you? If so, how?

Yes absolutely. I’m going to keep my Just Giving page open for another month.

Visit justgiving.com/page/megan-boxall-run-britain

Featured image of Megan Boxall by RWRedman Photography