RUNNING a marathon can seem daunting to most people but imagine running two in as many days.

Dr Vicky Lyon, 43, did just that last weekend in Milton Keynes but she’s not finished yet.

The Knox Academy teacher has completed 61 marathons – despite hating PE when she was younger.

Now, she is focusing on joining ‘the 100 club’ – a group for runners across the United Kingdom and Ireland who have completed 100 or more marathon distance (or longer) events within the next two years.

She said: “My big target is to get 100 and join the club. That should be September 2020, that is the plan. You have just got to enjoy it.

“I was not an athlete when I was at school and I do it because I love it. Every school I have worked in, I do work with the Active Schools and I speak to the kids, especially those that hate PE.

“It is really hard being a teenage girl with self-confidence issues and I speak to them and say, ‘I was you, I hated it and didn’t want to do it’. I felt awkward and now I love running. It is up to them to find something they enjoy and are passionate about doing.”

Dr Lyon, who lives in Midlothian, has been at Knox Academy since August last year.

The principle teacher for support for learning said: “I grew up in Cockburnspath and went to Eyemouth High School and I hated PE, absolutely detested it.

“I was not into anything like running and it would have been about June 2010 and there was a teacher at my school in Lasswade who had lost weight. In the summer holidays, I went out with my dog and decided I was going to run to the next lamppost.I got there coughing and spluttering, with a red face, and then I walked a bit and ran to the next one. Basically, it was the couch to 5K programme.”

Since then, the mum-of-two has completed marathons in cities from Edinburgh to London and Paris to Berlin.

She said: “Any person who does multiple marathons is an incredibly stubborn person. Even though it seems a stupid and crazy thing to do, you keep doing it.

“You meet so many amazing people, share stories with lots of people, and hear stories about how they lost weight or started running to get over drugs or addictions. It is a really good community.”

The Penicuik Harriers Running Club member added: “I’m a back-of-the-pack runner but I do it because I enjoy it. I don’t worry about being slow.

“What I like about running is that I’ve raced the London Marathon when Paula Radcliffe and Sir Mo Farah did it. There are not many other sports where you can run alongside Olympians.”

Last month she took on five long-distance events – including the Great North Run and the Glenmore Ultra, where competitors race for 24 hours.