You may recognize the faces of Kate and Sarah from our activity on International Women’s Day, when we shared their inspiring stories about participating in the adidas Manchester Marathon 2023. Although both very different, Kate and Sarah represent the importance of women challenging themselves in sport and overcoming any obstacles in their way. You can read their full stories on our page here.

Kate – one of our older participants who has had a total left knee  and right shoulder replacement – ran the marathon as part of her wider challenge to complete 400 marathons by her 70th birthday. It was also her tenth adidas Manchester Marathon! On the other hand, Sarah was running her first marathon as a busy mum of two who’d always wanted to do go the full distance, but had just never found the time to train. She was doing the event for herself and on behalf of other mums out there, especially those who don’t find motherhood easy!

So how did these two amazing women get on?

We spoke first to Kate, who told us “it was a really special one for me this year. I’ve run at Manchester for the past 10 years and this event just seems to get bigger and better each time. The organisation was just fantastic and I’d really like to thank everyone who made this day happen”.

When asked if Kate had signed up yet to become a Manchester Marathon ‘Legend’ (having run the event more than 5 times), she said “I haven’t yet but I quite like the sound of that”. Seeing as Kate was recognised at the finish line by multiple participants who’d read her story, we definitely think that she qualifies for the ‘Legend’ status at the marathon! After speaking with us, Kate went to repatriate and celebrate with her husband Jim, who also ran the event.

We also caught up with Sarah at the event, who ran bang on her target time of 4 hours and 15 minutes:

“It still seems to surreal that I actually did it! The support around the route was incredible and the atmosphere was brilliant. The medal is also pretty impressive as well – I loved wearing it in the pub afterwards where my family threw me a proper celebration. My mum even made me a ‘well done cake’ – they knew how much this event meant to be and I am so happy to make them – and myself – proud!

Sarah’s family pulled out all the stops by throwing a surprise celebration at a local pub after the event!

Kate was recognised at the finish line by two female participants who told her they’d read her inspiring story.