By Tan Parsons A WRITER from Highgate is aiming to show a few younger runners up in the London Marathon next month. Andrea Sanders-Reece, 52, only started running at the age of 50 but she is hoping to clock a time of three and a half hours. The Flora Lond

By Tan Parsons

A WRITER from Highgate is aiming to show a few younger runners up in the London Marathon next month.

Andrea Sanders-Reece, 52, only started running at the age of 50 but she is hoping to clock a time of three and a half hours.

The Flora London Marathon on April 13 will be her fourth marathon in two years. She said: "At my 50th birthday party I announced that I wanted to run a marathon before I was too old and seven months later I ran the Paris marathon in 3hrs 35minutes - a time that was considered 'good for age'."

She promptly joined the Mornington Chasers running club in Kentish Town in preparation for further races.

"I swim and play tennis so I'm pretty fit anyway and running is sort of natural to human beings," she said. "But I never did it before when I was at school - my events were always the javelin and the high jump."

So far she has completed marathons in Paris, New York and Boston and in each race she has finished in the top 40 runners in the over 50 age group.

"I'm not sure what motivates me exactly but I feel I owe it to myself," she said. "I've never been especially outstanding at anything and seeing as I'm quite good at running I want to push myself a bit harder and see how good I can be. I'm desperate to finish in three and a half hours - I'd like to do it in eight minute miles."

In her professional life Ms Sanders-Reece, from Highgate Avenue, is a screenwriter and wrote an episode of the day time television soap opera Doctors.

Completing four marathons in two years would be an extreme act of endurance for most people, and she says the Internet is partly to blame for her prolific running.

She added: "You always say 'this is my last marathon', but then as soon as you look on the website for the next one it's just so easy to click on one button. And then you're committed - I definitely blame it on the web.

"But the idea of running a marathon has always been in the back of my mind. I remember friends doing the first one in London - I used to smoke back in those days. I think I realised that if I hadn't said I'd do it now then I might never have had a go."

Ms Sanders-Reece is running in the London Marathon to raise money for Age Concern.

To sponsor her, visit www.justgiving.com/andreasandersreece.