Woman, 73, runs marathon 38 years after first race

A Coventry woman is preparing to run the London Marathon later this month - 38 years after first competing in the race and now at the age of 73.

It will be the 12th time Lesley Keighley has run in the race and this year's marathon will be part of her preparation for a 56-mile run along a canal route in Scotland with a friend later this year.

The 2025 race will be the first time she has entered the race since losing her husband, Sandy, and she will be dedicating this year's run to him.

"He was always at the finish line, waiting for me," she said. "I always found my way back to him."

"He used to joke and say: 'She keeps running off but she keeps coming back - so I must be doing something right'.

"He was a very funny man."

Mrs Keighley is raising money for Blood Cancer UK, because she was diagnosed with a blood disorder 10 years ago.

Mrs Keighley, who first ran the marathon in 1987, described how she watched the first London Marathon in 1981 and thought: "I could do that."

Two years later, when she was feeling down after having surgery on her arm, she decided it was the time to start.

She said she went out in an old pair of plastic shoes, still with her arm bandaged, and managed to do about 500 metres.

"When I got back to my door, I was a different person," she said.

She said her whole mentality had changed, adding: "The simplicity of it and the freedom of it has been life-changing."

It was why she was "still going strong now", she said.

She said this year's race was going to be an emotional one, but added running in the capital city was always a big event.

"I just love the simplicity of going out running.

"But London is special because it's like a celebration and a big carnival of everything about the sport, and of course it raises an awful lot of money for charities," she said.

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