The field of 44,000 competitors consisted of wheel chair athletes and able-bodied men and women covering all levels from professional and elite to ‘fun runners’

Anne, her husband John and two daughters Macy (3.5yrs) and Lyla (19 month) moved from Adelaide to Philadelphia about 14 months ago.

Anne and three other friends formed a running group about 10 months ago and met at 5am a few mornings a week to run around a couple of beautiful leafy outer suburbs of Philadelphia.

They competed in a couple of triathlons in Philadelphia and when Anne realised that she was finishing in the top 5% of the mixed fields of over 2,000 competitors she started to set her sights on competing in the New York event.

She completed her first ever marathon in 3hrs 41 mins and beat South Australian identities Tony McGuinness (4hrs and 13mins) and Matthew Primus (3hrs 55 mins).

Proud parents Sue and Malcolm Chivell watched the event on the Internet, but had trouble spotting Anne among the throng of competitors. They did however track her progress as each runner carried a computer chip and Anne’s chip fed information back to Sue and Malcolm every 5km of the 42km course.