A Colchester woman who caught the running bug ten years ago is preparing to take on her 100th marathon in London on Sunday.

Janine Simpson, 46, who is director of customer engagement at Royal Mail, ran her first London Marathon in 2006 after securing a charity ballet place on her first try.

Having completed the challenge, Mrs Simpson was eager to run another, flying to New York later in the year to take part in the Big Apple’s race. She has now completed marathons all over the globe, including in Chicago, Boston and Berlin.

“It was two years ago that I decided I had to go for 100 marathons,” she said.

“I used to do one or two a year, that was more about trying to break by personal best,

“Then I had a change in circumstances with the birth of my daughter and wanted to find different ways to challenge myself.”

Since setting the marathon 100 target, Mrs Simpson has tried to run as many as she can - completing 78 of them in the last two years.

She said because she does so many marathons, she is already in great shape for the event in London.

“I don’t really do a lot of training now,” she said.

“As I have been chasing the numbers over the last two years I don’t do a huge amount of proper training.”

She said Sunday’s expected hot weather could be a challenge.

“Ideally I would prefer something a lot cooler but I have been in situations with the heat before,” she said.

“It is about being sensible on the day, drinking lots of fluids and slowing it down if need be.

“You can get carried away with the crowds, people cheering and shouting your name may just push people on a little bit beyond and that’s why you could struggle in the later miles. But we all want to cross the finishing line. That is the beauty of marathon running, going back and trying to do that little bit better.”

Mrs Simpson is raising cash for Action For Children, Royal Mail’s corporate charity, and has already raised more than £7,000.

“Anything we can do to support our young people is excellent,” she said, “It’s such a great charity to support.”

For more information and to donate to the cause visit www.sponsorme.co.uk/janinesimpson/project-marathon-100