Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Alina.

Running found me before I understood what it was for. What began as a way to move through stress became, over time, something closer to a practice — a way of listening to my body, trusting it, and letting it teach me things no classroom or dojang ever could.

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I'm a long-distance runner and certified running coach. However, I came to both by a winding route: a black belt and years as a Taekwondo instructor, a degree in environmental geoscience from the University of Edinburgh, and a slow, steady falling-in-love with the marathon distance in particular. 

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I've run more than six marathons now, with a personal best of 3:20 at Seville 2026. But the number matters less to me than what the training taught me: how to listen when my body asks for rest, how to hold ambition and self-compassion in the same hand, and how to find as much meaning in an easy Sunday run through the woods as in a finish line.

Alongside coaching, I work as a climate news data analyst, a role that keeps me close to the questions of sustainability and stewardship that shape how I think about running, too. Endurance sport has a footprint, and I believe we can care about performance and the planet at once, without treating either as an afterthought.

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The Sustainable Runner is the space where all of this meets: a place for everyone who wants a different relationship with running than the one we're usually sold, one built on longevity rather than punishment, curiosity rather than optimisation, and the quiet confidence that comes from simply showing up, again and again, for yourself.