Tipton St John runner Jo Earlam has notched up four marathons in four days, taking part in the Great Barrow Challenge in Suffolk.

The 48-year-old Sidmouth Running Club member is on a mission to reach 50 marathons by age 50 in May 2015. These latest runs take her to 31!

The Barrow event involves self-navigating 26.2 miles or more on four different routes, all starting and finishing at the same point, with a daily 8am start time. Around 40 runners took part in all four days, the fastest times each day being under four hours. Earlam’s times were 5:37, 5:25, 5:35, and 4:52.

Her lowest point was on day three running on her own for the entire distance, with lots of roadwork involved. The last day was a more scenic course around Newmarket and some of the racing studs, also picturesque Suffolk villages. Setting off on this last challenge at a steady 11 minute mile pace, she managed to pass several runners who had previously finished ahead.

A former Herald reporter, Earlam writes a weekly blog about her running at www.joearlam.wordpress.com In this week’s account she relates how upon returning home she was keen to get the washing on, and inadvertently put her brand new £200 Garmin GPS sports watch in the machine by mistake. Amazingly it came out still reading the correct time, date and with all its data intact.

She started the blog earlier this year, upon reaching the halfway point of her objective, which is raising money for the South West based dementia charity BRACE. You can support her efforts by texting 70070, typing GOJO50 followed by the amount, or online at www.justgiving.com/Jo-EarlamBRACE

Her next marathon is Bournemouth on October 6, followed by Palma, Mallorca, two weeks later. She hopes to squeeze in one more in November to finish on 14 marathons run this year.