A Scots gran has completed the Virtual London Marathon - by running laps of her estate.
Wanda McMillan tried for eight years to win a place in the coveted event, before finally getting one for the 2020 race.
However Covid struck and the mum-of-two was left devastated when the annual event was cancelled for the first time in its 39-year history.
Organisers decided only elite athletes were allowed to run over 19.8 laps in a fenced-off course in a 'controlled secure biosphere' around St James's Park, London, after the usual mass event was scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However the remaining 45,000 amateur runners were invited to run their own 26.2-mile route and raise money for charities.
For Wanda, determined not to let her first ever London Marathon chance pass, this mean running 57 laps of her housing estate in Elderslie, Renfrewshire.
Wanda, who has been training since January for the doomed event, said: "I've been trying to get into the London Mararthon for eight years.
"I apply every year through the ballot and have never been successful.
"But this year I finally was and I was so excited, but then it was cancelled because of Covid. That was devatating.
"But then then said why not complete it on your own course, so I thought, 'why not?'.
"I figured out that one lap around my estate was 0.46 of a mile which worked out at just over 57 laps to make the 26.2miles."
Cheered on by friends, family and neighbours the 45-year-old completed the exhausting course in four hours and 38 minutes and rather than ask for cash donations, Wanda suggested people donated food items for the Renfreshire Food Bank Appeal.
Wanda, who is Deputy Headteacher at St Andrew's Academy in Paisley, says she has witnessed first hand the hardships poverty can have on young people.
She said: "In my job I see how every day poverty impacts our children and young people and some times its heartbreaking, so I wanted to do something that might make a difference.
"There is poverty all around us, right here on our doorstep, so I decided to make my run reflect that, by running right on my doorstep.
"I asked people to donate food items and the amount I raised is remarkable. It's overwhelming."
When she finished the gruelling race, Wanda, was met by her supportive family, including husband Vince, 55, Sons Callum, 20 and Mathew, 18 and step-children Declan, 26 and Naimh, 23 and three-year-old grandson, Anthony.
She said the support she received got her through the race.
She added: "I didn't run a single lap of that race on my own. I always had someone with me - at a social distance of course. The support was absolutely incredible, and especially at around mile 23, when it was getting so hard and the cramps were setting in."
Although cancelled this year, Wanda has already secured a place in the 2021 event.
She added: "They said we could defer our places so if everything is ok by next year, I will get to run the London Marathon at least, for real this time."
Ethiopia's Shura Kitata became the new champion of the men's London Marathon while Kenyan world record holder Brigid Kosgei held on to her title in the women's race.
