KENDAL AC’s Rebecca Robinson admits her result in the Brighton Marathon exceeded all expectations after finishing the race as the only UK athlete on the podium. 

In her first marathon since 2010, the 31-year-old was the third woman to finish the 26-mile route after clocking a time of 02:36:37, a time which saw her placed 13th overall.

Robinson finished behind two Kenyans, Alice Milgo who took gold in 02:35:33 and Selam Abere who came home in 02:36:37.

And while having certain goals going into the race, Robinson admits completing her first marathon for four years in such impressive fashion was not necessarily on the agenda.

“It was unexpected and nice but mainly I just enjoyed getting back to running a marathon and being at the start line – I enjoy running against myself,” she said.

“It was a really nice surprise because I had run the whole race aiming for quite a conservative pace to get back used to the pace of running a marathon.

“The plan would have been to do a marathon before now but I’ve spent a bit of time away from the sport with the last one I did back in 2010.

“There were pace-makers up to 20 miles and then after that I was on my own and it was quite exposed on the seafront.

“The period between 22-23 miles is when you get found out but a few of the leading girls were coming back towards me.

“I then had something to work with and something to aim for.”

After insisting her return to marathon running took her by surprise, Robinson is now aiming to make her presence at such events a more regular occurrence.

“When I first ran a marathon I qualified for the Europeans which was again unexpected but absolutely great experience,” she said.

“At that stage I wasn’t really prepared for being a marathon runner in terms of mileage and specific training you have to do and ran into some injury problems

“It was nothing too disastrous, hip problems and issues with my bio-mechanics, but more than anything else injuries like that affect your consistency and it’s taken a while to get that back.

“The aim now is to do the mileage and the specific training to hopefully become a proper marathon runner.

“That may be this year or I might consolidate a bit and aim for next year although I do want to move things on.

“It will never be perfect but perhaps I can get it right this time.”