A MALVERN athlete completed her first marathon on Sunday on the original course from the Greek village of Marathon into the city of Athens.

Helen Wootton, from Great Malvern, decided that, as she may only ever compete in one marathon, it might as well be the original one.

She has been training since April. Plagued by injuries, her training didn't go as planned but she till managed to finish in a respectable three hours 43 minutes.

Described as one of the hardest Olympic marathon courses, it was originally run in 490BC by Pheidippides, who reached Athens but promptly died after announcing victory over the Persian forces.

It is also the same course that Paula Radcliffe pulled out of during the Olympics.

Helen has been competing in triathlons for a few years but her role as a director at Glazzard Architects in Worcester has curtailed her training this year.

Helen said: "Training for one discipline has been slightly less time consuming than training for the three. I'm surprised to say that I did actually enjoy running the event. I didn't push too hard and kept wondering when and where the famous 'wall' would hit me - in the end I didn't feel it at all.

"I'm not ruling out another marathon, but it has to be somewhere special."