Tina Gomer has been a fitness instructor for more than 20 years so it’s no surprise that she’s into her running.

What is perhaps a little bit more surprising is that she has only been doing it for the past 10 years or so.

But while Tina didn’t get her running spikes on until her late 30s, two of her daughters – Amy and Jessie – have caught the running bug at a much earlier age and Amy has followed in her mum’s footsteps by becoming a member of Stroud and District Athletics Club.

For Tina, a mum-of-four who lives with her husband John in Cashes Green on the outskirts of Stroud, it’s certainly a case of better late than never because for much of the past decade she has been running for fun.

“It’s my escape route,” she said. “I find it relaxing.”

So how did she come to get involved in running?

“I took part in a race in Frampton,” she explained. “It was organised by Stroud Athletics Club and I must have done okay because I got spotted by the club and they said I should go along and train with them.”

The people in the know at Stroud AC knew what they were doing of course and pretty soon Tina was a regular down at the club.

“I got more and more enthusiastic and upped my training,” recalls Tina. “I also did quite a lot of training on my own.

“It’s all about your mindset. If you’ve got a good mindset then you do feel better, you feel lighter on your feet.

“When you’re out running you’ve got to have positive thoughts. It’s easy to think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ but you get a real sense of achievement and a lot of satisfaction when you finish a race.”

Spoken like a true fitness instructor, of course, but Tina clearly knows what she’s talking about and is delighted that her two oldest daughters are enjoying the sport just as much as her.

“I’m so super proud of them,” she said. “They’re both very keen runners and it gives them confidence. They started off by doing parkruns and they’re both excelling now.”

At 25, Amy is two years older than her sister and has been running for slightly longer although both set personal bests in the recent Stroud Half with Amy completing in one hour, 36 minutes, five seconds and Jessie in 1.37.

Amy recently completed five half marathons in five weeks – Jessie ran in three of them – to raise funds for five different charities.

The first of the five was on Sunday 1st October in Cardiff and that was certainly a red letter day for the Gomer family because both Amy and Jessie enjoyed excellent results that day in different parts of the country.

“They both smashed their half marathon PBs,” said their proud mum. “Amy ran one hour, 36 minutes, 54 seconds in Cardiff while Jessie set a personal best time in the Cheltenham Half.

“I’m getting so much from seeing them achieve, it’s so nice to enjoy their success.”

And although mum has obviously had an influence on the girls taking up running, the girls wanting to do it has played a big part as well.

“I like to think I’ve been a bit of a role model for them and influenced them but they didn’t really start running until they left school,” said Tina.

“The great thing about this sport is that anyone can do it. All you need is a pair of running shoes.

“It doesn’t matter about the weather – in fact, the worse the weather the more rewarding it can be.

“And the most rewarding part of all is it is something we can all do together.”

Just as rewarding is the fact that when they run they are often able to raise money for good causes as well.

Tina’s mum Lina Weidt died from ovarian cancer in 2010 and Tina and her two daughters – Amy lives in Randwick and Jessie in Cheltenham – have raised plenty for charity in recent years.

The amount raised was helped considerably by Tina’s two runs in the London Marathon, the most recent of which in 2014 saw her spend a lot of time on training runs with Dexter, her pet Lakeland terrier.

It was worth the effort though because she raised £1,800 for the oncology department at Cheltenham Hospital.

Dexter must be right up there with the fitness dogs in the county, if not the country, because the three-year-old also took part in a recent parkrun in Stonehouse.

“He ran with Amy,” laughed mum, “Amy was the first woman home and Dexter was the first dog!”

Meanwhile Amy, who didn’t start running seriously until 2014, has qualified for next year’s London Marathon for the first time after achieving a ‘good for age’ time in Manchester earlier this year and it means she will be following on from her mum who in 2012 completed the half marathon on the Stroud course in one hour, 29 minutes to earn herself a champion place for London.

Sunday 22nd April – the date when Amy makes her London debut – is sure to be something special for the Gomer family, who, with the exception of soon-to-be 21 Emily, are all sporty.

Tina’s husband is into cycling, running, football and cricket to name just a few sports while their son Max, who is almost 18, is very keen on football.

“As parents if you lead healthy lifestyles, your children will hopefully follow,” said Tina. “You open up your lifestyles to them and you hope they’ll buy into it and stay active.

“For me now it’s less about winning trophies, it’s more about helping my girls thrive.

They’ve got great mindsets and are really strong.”

They certainly are and so is mum… although ask her her age and she is not quite so forthcoming.

“You can’t ask me that,” she laughed. “Go on then, I’m 49 next year… but print 28! No, say I’m a young 48!”