Shilpa Conquers The Marathon (with relative ease)

Four weeks ago Shilpa had never run more than a 21k (and not many of them either). One weekend she decided to extend our usual 21k to 25k (alone too - even harder on the mind). Last week as you may have read in the international press (and on this blog) that on the same day that Haile Gebrselassie broke the marathon world record in Berlin, Shilpa also completed her first 30k run in Kuala Lumpur.

Well, time moves fast and records tumble even quicker it would seem; this morning at 4:45am Shilpa embarked on her first 42k (marathon distance) run. She barely noticed the first 32k, was resolute until 37k, at this point she had a bit of a wobble but quickly regrouped and polished off the last 5k to complete the marathon distance in 4 hours 37 minutes. An amazing accomplishment by anyone's standards.

There has been some talk of Shilpa entering the Bangkok marathon. This has caused quite some controversy as it was rumoured that Paula Radcliffe had planned to make an appearance in the event only to pull out once she heard that Shilpa may take part - the top level of women's marathon running has clearly been shaken up by this new, up and coming phenomenon - Go Shilpa Go!!