Finishing the 14-kilometre race at The Canberra Times Fun Run at the front of the pack won't quite be enough for Claire Ashworth – she's going to get straight back onto the course and follow it up with a 5km chaser.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In 2014, she not only won both races on the same day, but also set course records on both, and at this year's event on September 6, she's doing both events again.
"Last year I had a good day – I was really happy. Unfortunately I don't have the same form as last year to be getting course records, but I'm certainly going to be going for the win in both," she said.
"The 5k is probably harder than the 14 because it is the second race of the day – the first kilometre or two, it's hard to get going again, but then it doesn't feel too bad."
Born in the UK and having grown up in Adelaide, Ashworth moved to Canberra in 2012 for a government graduate program, and has lived between Sydney and Canberra ever since.
Three fractures over a short period of time almost ended the 29-year-old's running career in March this year.
"I just had enough and stopped enjoying it so I took two months off then but had a lot of support from friends who really believed in me to get back into it," she said.
"The gap from where you are to where you need to be sometimes seems so large and I didn't think I'd make it back."
Ashworth has only been back in training for a short six weeks, a gruelling regime of between running 160 to 240 kilometres a week, but now has bigger plans to run her first marathon.
"I've found an international half marathon in New Zealand to do on my 30th birthday in November, so I'm really excited about that. And now I'm looking at going to California in December to try and run an Olympic qualifier for the marathon," she said.
"I believe now I can get back to running where I want to be and hopefully in the next couple of years I'll be representing Australia in the marathon."
