Zoe shows her fighting spirit to win gold at Indoor Championships

At the end of the track season in September, over-training led to a stress fracture on Zoe’s shin; it took a long time to heal and she only started being able to run consistently from mid-January this year.

“I didn’t want to give up on my planned indoor track season but I cut it very fine,” said Zoe, who decided to concentrate on the 800m because she hadn’t been able to put in the endurance training needed to compete in the 1,500m.

Her first race back after injury was the Regional Masters race at Lee Valley, which was also the first time that mum-of-three Zoe had ever set foot on an indoor track.

Two weeks later, Zoe competed in the National Masters Indoor Championships at Lee Valley, putting in a superb performance to win gold in the W35 800m and silver in the W35 400m – only beaten by Lesley Owusu who was part of the Great Britain 4x400m team at the London 2012 Olympics.

Zoe’s next big race is the European Masters Indoor Championships in Italy at the end of this month.

After that, she will be moving on to the outdoor track for the summer track season, gearing up for the World Masters Championships in Australia in October.

Zoe is also hoping to challenge for team gold again at the National Masters 5K road relays in May.

“One of the reasons I think I have been able to get back into shape so quickly is by joining Berkhamsted Swimming Club,” said Zoe. “I needed to be pushed and keep fit in other ways while I couldn’t run.

“I am very grateful to the coaches at the club and I intend to keep up the swimming, having won the National Masters Biathlon in November.”