Last year Melbourne runner Ellie Stubbs enjoyed the Traralgon Marathon so much she decided to come back in 2012.
Completing the half marathon in a personal best time of one hour, 43 minutes and 50 seconds, Stubbs said the atmosphere at Traralgon was what she really enjoyed.
“It’s such a great environment to run in,” she said.
“I always felt really safe on the course; it’s well supervised, good road blocks and there’s great support from the volunteers.”
The 27 year-old tech support worker only started running four years ago.
Her brother, who is in the United States Marine Corps, encouraged her to try it and straight away she decided to keep it up.
“I’d never really done running before, at school I played the drums so I was always into music,” she said.
“But when I started I just loved the feeling of running, and setting yourself goals you could work towards.”
Stubbs said she started by doing fun runs of around four kilometres, then slowly built up to around 15km.
“Then before I knew it I was able to run to my friend’s house in Nunawading which was about 28km from my place,” she said.
Stubbs admitted she did not find running easy at the start, but it was the setting of those goals that helped her.
Then last year, she completed three marathons: Traralgon in June, Sydney in September and Melbourne in October.
“I was really happy with how I performed in all the marathons, and now I know I’ll keep going,” she said.
Slowed down slightly by a foot injury, Stubbs has been training with a coach in Melbourne who she said has been “an incredible motivator.”
“For now, I’m just managing my injury, but in the future I may even consider doing a triathlon,” she said.
Stubbs also said she hoped to return to Traralgon next year.
