It was a slightly unusual situation for Beth Dowbiggin in the sense that she’d done the Run the Sea 50k before actually having even done a marathon race. At the Phoenix Running ‘Remembrance Day Marathon’, she had the opportunity to register her first ever marathon distance race.

Despite not having reached anywhere close to that distance in any run before, Beth did really well at Run to the Sea and found that she was capable of maintaining a steady pace throughout the whole run with no real issues.

She had to have a 10 minute stoppage as a friend who she was running with was sick but she managed to get round in 4 hours 43 minutes and was 12th female. Since she didn’t really find it all that difficult, that had got her thinking that perhaps, she was built to be a strong endurance runner.

She’d had a lot of success in her primary sport of triathlon over the course of the year, qualifying for the European Championships in Spain next summer after finishing first female in her age category at Bournemouth International Triathlon.

Before that she won the New Forest Triple Triathlon Series, finishing second female and first in the 20 – 24 age bracket in the Standard distance race at the Huntsman Triathlon.

Then she came fourth female and second in her age category in The Swashbuckler Standard Triathlon. That was a race which Bournemouth AC member Emma Caplan won.

After that she competed at the New Forest Triathlon where she finished third female and again, first in her age category.

That was enough to earn her the trophy for the New Forest Triple Triathlon Series, so it was certainly an achievement to be proud of for Beth and nice memento to put on the mantlepiece.

The Remembrance Day Marathon was a trail race featuring four out-and-backs along the riverside towpath. Since it was being run on Remembrance Day, the race included a unique freeze when it hit 11am so that the two minutes silence could be observed by runners, marshals, supporters and everyone present.

Starting off a fair bit faster than she did in the Run to the Sea 50k, Beth was going at around 7:50 pace. About 10k into the race though, she started to feel a pain in her knee – and with such a long way still to go, that wasn’t a good sign. She soldiered on though and was determined to get to the finish.

Managing to keep the pace at 7:50 for the first nine miles, she then dropped to 8 minute pace for the next four mile. After that her pace began to drift toward the 8:30 region and Beth was suffering. That last seven miles of the race were a real struggle but she battled on through her knee pain determined to reach the finish.

It wasn’t quite how she envisaged her first ever marathon going but she’d shown great character to dig in, despite her early injury and push through the pain barrier to make it the end.

She’d actually done it in a pretty respectable time as well, completing the course in 3 hours 49 minutes and 47 seconds. That was quite some effort for the debut for the distance and since the injury had hampered her a lot, she clearly had scope to go much quicker.

It was enough to make Beth the second female over the line after Katy Daly who ran it in 3:42:21. Elena Nevzorova was third lady in a time of 3:51:01.

The race was won by Graham Bell in a time of 3:19:01, with Jack White taking second in 3:20:59. James Mepham took third in 3:26:54, with James Barker taking fourth in 3:28:30.

Beth finished 16th in the overall standings out of 119 competitors. Judging by the way she’s performed in her two long distance races thus far, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Beth continue on the endurance path and compete in more marathons and perhaps even ultras of a further distance than 50k.

She will certainly need to ensure her knee is fully recovered and strengthened before she takes on her next challenge though, whatever that may be.