Stella Godwin, Mainline Employment's managing director, has just raised £750 for Guide Dogs for the Blind by running her first ever 26.2 mile marathon in Edinburgh.

Inspired by the book 4 Months to Run a Marathon, Stella, whose recruitment company is based in Commercial Road, decided she wanted to prove to herself in her 40th year that she could still manage a physical challenge of this nature.

She said: "Both in the business sense and personally, I set myself targets I have to achieve. I've never been the brightest or the fastest, but its like the hare and the tortoise I just don't give up."

She continued: 'The race was harder than I thought because I did all my training on the flat.

"At the halfway point I was 1,020th out of 4,000 runners but had to slow down because running downhill really hurt my knees." She finished in five hours.