Aly Dixon

When Aly Dixon was 11 years old, she joined Sunderland Harriers running club. She pounded the pavements during crisp, white mornings, not because she loved to feel the wind in her lungs, but because the club had planned a trip to Flamingo Land, and she was desperate for the crash and thrill of the rollercoasters. She loved to feel her body stretch and burn and she turned somersaults at gymnastics, learned to dolphin kick in her local pool, clashed hockey sticks and shot netballs, before finding that she loved athletics most of all.

At university, she flew over the finishing line at the British University Championships and was quickly snapped up to run for England at national level. She raced her way across the world, speeding past the ocean at the 2016 Rio Olympics while her parents cheered her on beneath palm trees. In Romania, she snapped on her Lycra and flashed through the Brasov streets until her thighs burned and became the 50k world champion holder. Days later, her muscles still raw from the race, Aly joined the Great North Run and sped from Newcastle to South Shields dressed as Wonder Woman. The sun caught her gold crown as crowds lining the streets screamed her name and she shattered her second world record in a week.

Aly runs with the Sunderland Strollers and trains regularly along the salt-wracked coast or in Herrington Country Park, beneath the quiet gaze of Penshaw Monument. She is an ambassador for St. Benedict’s Hospice in Sunderland and has raised thousands of pounds to help them support others. Her motto is, ‘Respect the distance, but don’t fear it,’ which she finds useful during marathons and in her ambitions and dreams.