Lorna Gleave quipped that she only took up race walking when she had children and needed some peace and quiet in her own space.

The 40-year-old mother of three received the Special Achievement in the Isle of Man Award for completing a unique hat-trick of wins in long-distance race walking last year.

In June she won the women’s section of the Parish Walk in a time of 17hr 27min 31sec to cross the line 11th overall in a total field of 134 finishers.

Three months later she also won the End to End Walk when finishing sixth in the 39-mile event, which is less than half the distance of the Parish but many, including Lorna, believe it is a tougher race because the hills all come in the second half.

‘The Howe is particularly testing, in what is the last two or three miles, it’s almost cruel and the finish could not come quick enough for me,’ she said.

In November she was the leading woman in the walk section of the half-marathon 13.2-mile race in the south of the island known as the Syd Quirk Half-Marathon.

‘I wasn’t too confident about this event as it is shorter, so favours walkers who regularly walk 10 or 20km. Short races are not my thing.

‘It was also an awful day, wet from start to finish, so that probably encouraged me to get home quicker.’

After that event, athletics correspondent and statistician David Griffiths announced to Lorna that she was the first person, male or female, to win the Parish, End to End and Syd Quirk walk in the same year.

Lorna is keen to defend her title in the Parish Walk, but also has ambitions to up her miles to take in a Centurion 100-mile race some day in the future.