Amber Watson celebrates her 25th birthday later this month but unlike many people of that age she’ll be taking it nice and steady.

That’s because her birthday comes eight days before the Cheltenham Half Marathon, a race she will be running for the first time.

In fact the Cheltenham Harrier has never run a half marathon anywhere so she’s determined that her preparations are spot on for the big day on Sunday 30th September.

“I don’t think I’ll be going out,” she laughed.

And you can make that a ‘definitely’ because she added: “I’m running the Angels 10K at Ashleworth the day after my birthday as a little runout before the Cheltenham Half.”

Amber, a sports teacher at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, clearly likes her running. The former King’s School pupil in Gloucester, who lives in Dymock, was a keen runner with Stroud Athletic Club in her teenage years before tendonitis in her Achilles at the age of 18 sidelined her for six months.

“After that I lost interest,” the one-time Hartpury College and Cardiff Met student admitted. “I only started running again at the beginning of 2017.

“I was working at a school in Somerset and a colleague said why don’t you come for a run and it all went from there.”

It certainly did because within a few months Amber, who is also a keen cyclist, was taking part in the Blenheim Triathlon.

And with her appetite whetted, she headed up to Redcar in July for another triathlon which just happened to be an age group qualifier for the world age group triathlon championships in Rotterdam.

“I came fifth in age group in Redcar and qualified for Rotterdam in the September, I didn’t expect that!” she laughed. “I didn’t place anywhere in Rotterdam but it was a great experience to take part in such a big event.”

Since then she has concentrated on her running – she joined Cheltenham Harriers a year and a half ago - and she didn’t lose her enthusiasm even when she was travelling around Australia for 10 months.

“I was based in Melbourne for six months and I joined a local club,” she said.

And she also took part in a 10K when she was in Adelaide. “That was all along the seafront,” she said. ”I kept things ticking over when I was in Australia and when I got back to this country in July I was straight back into it.”

She is part of Dave Newport’s running group at the Harriers – they meet twice a week – and she also runs three times a week on her own.

“I feel fitter than I have for a long time,” she said. “I want to improve and I’ve already seen a big improvement over the past couple of months.”

So what time is she aiming for in the Cheltenham Half?

“It’s my first half so I don’t really have a definite aim,” she said. “I’d like to go as close to 90 minutes as possible.

“To go sub-90 would be ideal but it’s a long way! I want to break 90 but I don’t really want to say that… to break 90 would be the ideal scenario.”

Amber has never run more than 10K competitively – her best time is 40 minutes, 21 seconds – but she has been doing 16 to 20K training runs in recent weeks so she will clearly be ready to take on the 13.1-mile course on the big day.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s a big event and I’ll be wearing a Cheltenham Harrier vest so I should get great support. I want to start off steadily and hopefully pick up through the race. I just hope I don’t ‘die’ in the last two miles, that’s my biggest fear.”

Those final two miles are run around Cheltenham Racecourse and Amber added: “I’ve heard it can be quite lonely going round the racecourse.”

A runner of Amber’s quality should be absolutely fine of course and whatever happens she wants to keep on running in the weeks, months and years to come.

“Definitely, that’s the plan,” she said. “I want to do as many Gloucestershire Cross Country League races as possible.”

And what about a marathon, is that part of the plan?

“It’s part of the bucket list,” she laughed, “but not for the foreseeable future. Let’s see how the Cheltenham Half goes, but never say never.”