HELEN Wright ran a remarkable 2hr 59min 06sec to finish 136th female in the BOSTON MARATHON out of more than 30,000 starters.

It was a particularly emotional event since only last week one of the bombers from two years ago was found guilty in court.

Wright, from Keighley & Craven AC, had run a minute quicker last year in Chester but the Boston course is notoriously tough.

Fortunately her chip-time was recorded because her gun-time was one second above the three-hour marker.

Apart from the ancient Marathon to Athens route, Boston is the oldest and most celebrated marathon. Its first running in 1897 was the year after the Olympic Games were revived.

At 20 miles, when you expect to hit the 'wall', there is a tough climb, nicknamed Heartbreak Hill. An incline of 30 metres in half a mile sounds little but it is significant.

For Wright, she dropped two minutes on her 5K splits at this point. Otherwise she was consistently splitting at 20min 20sec per 5K over the slightly downhill first half and 21:40 over the undulating second half.

She clearly likes the American events, having previously run the Panama Half Marathon and the San Francisco Marathon.

Closer to home, also on Sunday, Kevin Ogden finished 39th in the GREATER MANCHESTER MARATHON and was fifth over-40 of almost 8,000 starters.

But the Spenborough athlete ran three minutes quicker in last year's London Marathon, so will be disappointed with his time.

Katie Phillips of Bingley knocked five minutes off her best time with 4:11:01, while Lorne McNeill (Baildon) bettered his own mark by four minutes in 3:12:43.

In his first marathon, Dave Teggart (Bradford-Airedale) ran 2:55:02sec, although he probably paid in the last six miles for going off slightly too optimistically.

The MEANWOOD VALLEY TRAIL RACE, held on the same day, drew 385 runners over 7.5 miles of footpaths, grassland and just 100 yards of tarmac.

Jonathan Wills (Leeds City) won in 41:36, with Wharfedale Harriers duo Christian Holmes and Nick Charlesworth fighting each other for fifth. Claire Cooper (Keighley & Craven) was second lady in 50:22.