Inverness marathon runner breaks club record in Chicago
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Amy Hudson became the first female athlete from the Inverness Harriers to run a marathon in under three hours.
She set a new club record when she crossed the line in two hours 58 minutes and 47 seconds at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday.
She beat the previous club record by six minutes of 3:04:50 which was set by former Great Britain 400 metre runner Lesley Hansen at Stirling in April.
Hudson beat her own personal best marathon time by 12 minutes.
She was also the first British woman to cross the line in a race where Brigid Kosgei of Kenya set a new world record of 2:14:04.
Hudson said it had been an ambition in her athletics career to run the marathon in under three hours.
She said to break the three hour barrier over 26 miles was a dream come true.
"It's been a year of training on and off for one day," she said. "I woke up to great conditions - cold but dry and sunny and a pancake flat course, so I knew I had to push for the sub three hours.
"I managed to hold an even pace without a working GPS watch until around mile 22 when we turned and had a brutally cold headwind right until the finish line.
"I was really emotional to hear that there were no other British women ahead of me and that I had finally cracked a long term dream goal."
