Helen Taranowski
A brief history of my running journey so far...
I started running for weight loss in 1999. Not long after I ran my first half marathon in just under 2 hours. The experience was quite painful as I certainly hadn't done enough training but the sense of achievement was great and it inspired me to carry on running. My second half marathon was much less painful. After a few years of running two or three times a week, I decided to enter what I said would be my first and last marathon. I completed that event, Abingdon marathon 2004, in 3 hours 42 minutes. A year later I was back at Abingdon where I improved my time to 3:32.
Running under 3hrs 45min had given my entry to London marathon in April 2006 under the 'Good for Age' entry system, so in January 2006, I followed my first structured marathon training plan. It paid off with a big PB of 3hrs 18min. The next aim was to make the London Marathon Championship start which required my to run either a sub 3:15 marathon or a sub 1:30 half marathon. I had many attempts at the sub 1:30 HM, finally making it in April 2008 with a 1:28:45 at Stratford-upon-Avon half marathon.
After losing three months of training time in the summer of 2008 due to an Achilles injury, I started back in training in October 2008, set PBs at 10km in December, 5m in January 2009 and at half marathon in February. I ran a half marathon in 1:22:50 which gave me confidence that I might be able to run under 3 hours at London Marathon in April. And I did manage it...just...with a 2:58:44! I will never forget the last couple of miles of that race as that is the most mental and physical pain I have ever felt in any race either before or since!
I have recently ventured into ultra distance running, in 2010 I won the Dartmoor Discovery 32.2 mile ultra marathon and the England Athletics 50km Championship. The 50km championship was also the England trials for the IAU World 50km Trophy Final and I was therefore selected to run for England at 50km; an achievement I could never have even dreamed of back in 1999!
In 2011, I have placed first female and third overall at both the South Downs Way Challenge and at the Al Andalus Ultra Trail and was part of the gold medal winning England team at the Commonwealth Ultra Trail Championships.
