Paris Olympic marathon honour for local health boss
A senior county health official has taken part in a public marathon organised as part of the Paris Olympics.
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For the first time in the history of the games, the public have been given an opportunity to participate through the Marathon Pour Tous.
Inese Robotham, Assistant Chief Executive at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, completed the event, a mass participation marathon for amateur runners from around the world.
It took place on Saturday, August 10, and followed the same 42,195km loop from Paris to Versailles as the one run by Olympic athletes earlier in the day.
Inese has completed 21 marathons, including all six Abbott World Majors in Berlin, Chicago, Boston, London, New York and Tokyo.
In order to be allocated one of the much-coveted bibs, prospective applicants had to complete a variety of challenges during the two years preceding the Olympics.
Following each successful challenge the participants were entered in a draw for a chance to be allocated one of the 20,024 starting spots in the mass participation marathon.
Inese said it had been incredible to have the opportunity to take part in the event.
She said: "Taking part in the Olympics Games was absolutely incredible and is an experience I will never ever forget. The crowd support was incredible, it seemed that the whole of Paris were out on the streets having a party throughout the night.
"The course was also one of the toughest that I have experienced due to the heat and the steep gradient of the hills. We were spurred on by an absolute army of volunteers and other support staff until the Olympic finish line was within our reach.
"I got into running quite late in life and I am not a fast marathoner, but I am quite stubborn which definitely helps over long distances.
"Running has taken me to places where otherwise I probably would not have ventured to and has facilitated friendships within the running community all over the world.
"I was really taken by the ethos of Paris Olympics of making the Games accessible to the masses, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be one of the few out of the hundreds of thousands of hopefuls worldwide who had a chance to experience the Olympic Marathon route in Paris."
