by When Vanessa Dolling took up a challenge to run 100 miles in 21 hours, she was not sure if she had bitten more than she could chew.
“I’m always really impatient to see how far I can push my body,” she said.
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“I did not know if my body would make me cross a hundred kilometers.”
Ms. Dolling, 51, of Boxtened, started running again at the start of the thirties.
She rediscovered a love for activity and founded BOXTED RUNNING Club in 2017 to share it with others and to make the race accessible to people of all capacities.
She trained as a fitness instructor and personal coach before she soon starts to enter the races at a distance, presenting herself to various charities each time. It went from 10 km to a 100,000 63,000 race.
SPORT – Ms. Dolling resumed the race at the start of the thirties and trained as a personal trainer (Image: Vanessa Dolling) “When you decide to do it, you think it will be really difficult to do, and they are very difficult to do,” said Ms. Dolling.
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“You can’t imagine doing it in the first place.
“But when you get there, the first thing you think is” what else can I do? “”
Ms. Dolling turned on a 100 -mile race and signed up for the Centurion race event in the South Downs for June 14.
After a period of despite Christmas, she was not sure that she would be ready in time to run. But she started running a mile every day in January and finally felt strong enough to believe that she could do it.
Amazing – Ms. Dolling has finished many racing events for a variety of charities (Image: Vanessa Dolling) Ms. Dolling said: “You never know what will happen by working for long distances.
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“The only thing I had on my side was that I knew I could run 63 miles, because I had already done it – I had just 37 miles to run on top.”
The day of the race came and Mrs Dolling traveled south with her two children and her husband. She started the race at 5.30 a.m. and finally finished around 2:45 a.m., 9 p.m. and 7 minutes later.
Ms. Dolling’s husband Scott sent her a text when she came halfway that she was the ninth woman overall and the first in her age category, which gave her the boost she needed.
Her eldest child William, 15, ran the last 400 meters of the race with her and her daughter Poppy, 12, was also able to encourage her mother.
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“For them, it was a fairly important and exciting thing,” said Ms. Dolling. “They had to be standing in the middle of the night, watching me finish. It was really emotional. “
Finish – Ms. Dolling collected her prices after crossing the finish line around 1 a.m. (Image: Vanessa Dolling) At 51, Ms. Dolling was the ninth female final overall, first in her age category, and the 70th finisher in total on around 400 people.
She chose to run for young minds and collected £ 1,000 in just four weeks of fundraising.
“I wanted people to recognize that we have to help young people and what they go through,” said Ms. Dolling.
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“Their life is quite difficult these days, especially with social media. I just felt that we had to raise a little conscience.”
Ms. Dolling said that when she had crossed the finish line, she had never felt such a great feeling of success in addition to having her children.
“It’s something so much that changes life, traveling 100 miles,” she said. “This feeling only changes life.”
Find out more about boxed runners can be found on the racing club website.
