MARATHON … even the written word strikes fear and trepidation into the hearts of most athletes, but Diane Kavanagh saw it as a goal after watching other Hamilton Running Club members undertake the ultimate test of a runner.

At 72 years young, Kavanagh had set herself the goal after seeing people running 12 months ago at the Gold Coast Marathon, but she had major surgery only seven and a half months ago where she had a metre of her bowel removed.

“I watched these athletes and said to Carolyn ‘that I could run quicker than that’ and she replied, ‘well give it a go’,” Kavanagh said.

After recovering from that medical setback, Kavanaugh set herself back to the task at hand and started deliberately training for this event three months ago.

Having taken up running at the tender age of 60, she has steadily improved and lengthened her distances she competes at with this being her ultimate test.

Being a long-standing member of the Hamilton Running Club, Kavanagh has had tremendous support from the other club members and especially from her coach, Narelle Frichot, who has guided her along the path every step of the way.

“When I decided to do the marathon, I went to my coach who quickly asked me who I wanted to do this marathon for, and just as quickly I said, myself,” Kavanagh said.

“Narelle has been my coach for 10 years and she stated that it was years of consistency that allowed me to be able to do this.

“At the time of my surgery I didn’t think I’d run again, but after 15 days in hospital with my sister sitting by my bedside every afternoon, my stubbornness took over and here I am.

“I made it happen, not on my own, I had great support from my husband Neil – mind you I don’t think he was that happy when I told him – and the running club.

“I trained for this event for three months and I did all that was asked of me in my plan as set out by Narelle, even eating double what I usually eat from the Friday to the long runs.

“Every Sunday I would get up for a long run, gradually building the kilometres up with Carolyn Van Kalken as my running buddy.

“She is a much faster runner than me, but she slowed to my pace to run with me in both training and in the race, but she didn’t push me, she just let me do what I was able to do.

The Gold Coast marathon was on July 7 and Kavanagh and Van Kalken took a week to find their way home to Hamilton, as they both recovered with Kavanagh saying she couldn’t walk upstairs after the race.

“I ran a time of 5:18.00 which was better than I expected; I absolutely loved running with Carolyn, as we had so much fun,” Kavanagh said.

“I had to stop at the 26k mark and get rapigel into my knees so that I could continue, as they were in a poor state, plus our support team also helped with running repairs to myself and my shoes (stone in the shoe) and off we went again.

“Everything was hurting by the 36k marker, but the crowd was so supportive, yelling out ‘Go Granny’ (the name on my race bib) and then high fiving us as we approached the finish line, it helped take the pain away.

“The plan at the start of the race was to run five kilometres and walk one kilometre, but we adjusted that as we went along to running two kilometres and walk 500m.

“I actually didn’t realise I love running so much until that day, and we have made memories forever that we will never forget.

“I am not running another marathon as much as I loved it, I’ll stick to half-marathons, 10k and 5k events plus build on my 209 Park Runs.”

The marathon was the 15th of Van Kalken’s career, and she will be running the distance again in Adelaide in six weeks and then again in Melbourne seven weeks after that.