Anna Troup (born 1970)[1] is a British ultramarathon runner who, in 2021, achieved the fastest known time for a female completion of the Pennine Way. She is a qualified lawyer and works in financial management.
Troup has an MA in PPE from the University of Oxford and is a qualified lawyer, having trained at Slaughter and May. While at Oxford she rowed as stroke in the winning boat in the 1991 Women's Boat Race.[2] She has been chair of the Oxford University Women's Boat Club and a member of the board of The Boat Race Company, which runs The Boat Race, and is on the board of the Leander Club.[3]
On 17 August 2021, Troup completed the 268mile Pennine Way in 72 h 46 min,[4] [5] breaking the fastest known time previously held by Sabrina Verjee who had completed in 74 h 28 min 19 s in 2020.[6]
Troup is the female record holder of the Summer Spine Race along the route of the Pennine Way, having completed the 2021 race in a time of 80 h 28 min 35 s.[7] In the 2022 Spine Race, run in January, she dropped out at Torside;[8] the fastest female completed in 104h 08min 22s.[9]
Troup was the fastest female in the 2021 Lakeland 100 race, in which her partner, Richard Staite, was the fastest veteran; one of her daughters was the youngest finisher in the associated Lakeland 50 race, and her other daughter supported the family runners at the aid stations.[10] She has also been fastest female in the 2020 Arc of Attrition 100,[11] the Wendover Woods 100, and the Exodus 100, and has been placed in several other races.
, Troup plans to take part in the 2022 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, which starts on August 28.[12] [13]
Troup's partner is ultrarunner Richard Staite, and she has two daughters who also compete in ultramarathons.[14] [15] She lives in Henley.
She works in financial management[16] and, among other roles, is a non-executive director of the Charles Stanley Group[17] and of T. Bailey Financial Services.[18] She is a trustee of the Triathlon Trust.[19]
In a 2019 interview, she said that her favourite book was Steve Peters's The Chimp Paradox; her favourite app, Strava; and her favourite quote, Henry Ford's words: "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."