A MACMERRY runner battled through injury and flooding to complete the virtual London Marathon, saying it was “an absolutely perfect way” to run her first marathon.

Julie Laroche, of McIntyre Lane, applied to run the world-famous race in last year’s ballot and was unsuccessful – but won a place through Haddington Running Club, with whom she is a member.

Training through the winter, Julie was disappointed in April by the marathon organiser’s announcement that the race would be postponed until October.

Julie, 45, said: “I carried on training all through lockdown – and, to be honest, it was probably a good thing because it really gave me a focus and a bit of headspace, which was great because I have three kids so home-schooling and working full-time and the whole lockdown thing was hard for us all.

“I maintained my training up to half-marathon pace and did a lot of virtual races throughout the year; and eventually London Marathon said it wasn’t happening but we could do it virtually.”

With organisers announcing in August that the race would be cancelled, but that athletes could organise their own 26.2-mile run, Julie said she was not keen on the idea.

She said: “My first reaction was: ‘No way, I can’t do it virtually. It’s my first marathon, there’s just no way I could do it on my own.’

“And then I thought: ‘If I miss this I will really regret it.’ I’d trained and trained for it, and in March I got up to 21 miles, so I was ready when they cancelled it.”

Upping the mileage in training, Julie picked up a foot injury – but was determined not to be tripped up by this obstacle.

“I went to see a sports therapist and just thought: ‘Keep going, you’ll be all right on the day,’” she said.

Julie, who completed a special ‘500-mile’ challenge last year, prompted by the iconic The Proclaimers’ song, was joined for sections of the run by friends and other athletes.

Mum-of-three Julie said: “It would have been a very, very difficult thing to do on my own, without support, and I was blown away by my friends and family, all the support, just seeing them at different points, coming out and cheering me on.”

Mapping out the route presented some problems too, not least of which was the impact of downpours the day before the race.

The route which Julie had originally planned – from Macmerry to the coast via Gladsmuir – was flooded by torrential rain and so she was forced to change her plans at the last minute.

She said: “I had huge panics on the Saturday night, thinking: ‘Am I going to have to swap my trainers for my wellies?’ I changed my plan and rerouted the first eight miles to go through Tranent to avoid the worst of the flooding.”

And Julie, who finished in four hours, 29 minutes and 29 seconds, was joined for the last three miles in Holyrood Park by husband Tom and son Sean, 15.

She said: “Tom and Sean had been doing the ‘Couch to 5k’ throughout lockdown – Sean’s been doing it as part of his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

“To have Tom and Sean do that last bit… it was just lovely.”

Despite the setbacks, Julie is overjoyed to have completed her first marathon, joining 45,000 other runners in 104 countries around the world to do so.

She said: “I’m still in a bit of shock; I cannot believe I’ve done it.”