Kate Sackett had had a pretty momentous few days when she spoke to The Local Answer.

She was still recovering after completing her first ‘proper’ Ironman and only a matter of days after that gruelling event she became a grandma for the first time when her daughter gave birth to a baby girl called Piper.

“Yes, it has been a busy few days,” laughed Kate, who has just turned 60.

She’d taken part in Ironman Wales in Tenby – an event which consisted of a 2.4-mile sea swim, a 112-mile bike ride followed by a marathon – and she completed it in under 16 hours.

Her partner Andy Kilby, of Dursley Running Club, also took part – he finished 10 minutes behind her – and although it was her first completed Ironman it wasn’t actually the first time she had entered an Ironman event.

“I did an Ironman in Bolton in 2018,” Kate explained, “but the bike ride was reduced by 17 miles because of the fires on the moors.

“I felt I had to do another Ironman because I hadn’t gone the full distance!”

So how does Kate feel now that she has done a ‘proper’ Ironman?

“I think that’s it for me,” she chuckled, “I don’t think I’ll be doing another one!”

You can’t blame her for that, of course, but what makes her achievement all the more praiseworthy is that she only joined Cirencester Athletics and Triathlon Club as recently as 2015.

“I started running when I was about 40 but nothing serious,” said Nottingham-born Kate, who worked as a consultant psychiatrist and moved to Chalford Hill near Stroud, where she still lives, in 1983.

“I was a little bit out of condition. I started in the gym on the treadmill but then a nurse who I worked with said if I could run 10 minutes on the treadmill I could run a mile outside.

“She bought me a water bottle and encouraged me go running.”

And that was the start.

“I joined a group of friends in Chalford Hill who ran what was known as the Tesco Loop,” continued

Kate. “It was about five kilometres around Chalford Hill and we used to do it twice a week.”

And although Kate says she wasn’t a serious runner, she became confident enough to enter the Stroud Half Marathon a few years later.

“That was amazing,” she said. “I didn’t do a particularly good time – it was more than two hours – but getting round was an achievement.”

She’s run that race much quicker since, of course, with a best time of one hour, 38 minutes, 12 seconds.

She ran her first marathon in 2014 in Manchester when she went round in three hours, 55 minutes, adding, “I was pleased with that.”

She has since run six more marathons – she ran London this year – and has a personal best of three hours, 27 minutes, 30 seconds, which she recorded in Manchester.

That was good enough to earn her a qualifying place in the Boston Marathon, a race she took part in in 2017, and she’ll continue to clock up the air miles in 2020 because she’s entered the Tokyo Marathon.

Not for nothing does Liza Darroch, the publicity officer for Cirencester Athletics and Triathlon Club, say of Kate that she is a “very successful and driven athlete”.

Kate joined the club after her husband Mark died four years ago – “I needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” she said.

And the reason she chose Cirencester was because they had a triathlon section.

“I’d done a triathlon in 2004, I think I was most likely last,” she said. “But I thought if I did triathlon I’d be less likely to get injuries because I’d be using different muscles for the three disciplines, it would spread the load.”

She admits it hasn’t quite worked out like that – she’s had a few injuries along the way – but she doesn’t for one minute regret taking up the sport.

“It’s three times as enjoyable because you’re doing three events,” she said. “It’s a way of challenging myself.”

So which is her best discipline?

“Running,” she said, without a moment’s hesitation, “I’m no good at swimming or cycling. Four years ago I couldn’t even do front crawl, but I definitely persevere.

“I just keep chipping away, I’m very determined.”