INSPIRATIONAL mother Dunya Elias has shed the pounds, stubbed out the cigarettes and is all set to run her fourth marathon in 12 months on Sunday. The Saudi-born Saar resident hopes to be an inspiration to other women in the region to step out of their comfort zones and achieve their dreams. "Three years ago I decided to change," she said. "I was not feeling well ... I was about 20kgs overweight, smoked heavily and I had to change to be a good role model for my children. "I told myself that I wanted to get fit and I wanted to run my first marathon before the age of 40 - and I did it! "I started 'walk-jogging' outside. I did feel ill a few times and it was very, very difficult in the beginning. It took one step at a time and a lot of determination. "I had never run before - maybe a little bit of cycling, swimming and some aerobics. I opted for running because when I stopped smoking I thought it would keep me away from the cigarettes. When I run I cannot smoke!" Dunya, a professional chiropodist, was born in Jeddah and attended a public school in Al Khobar. She led a 'conservative' and sheltered life until she left for the UK to complete her higher education. In the 1990s she studied for a short time at Bahrain University. Six years ago Dunya returned to the island with her German husband, Alexander Holzinger-Elias and children Tamara, 17, and Rakan, 13. Dunya said: "I had no freedom as a child. I was overweight and there was nothing I could do about it because all forms of sports activity were forbidden for girls in schools." However, running was in her blood. Her father, Khalil Elias held a record for the 100 metres in the 1960s of 10.6 seconds. A focussed Dunya trained alone and started working out at a gym in Barbar but at first her fitness efforts proved nightmarish. "I started off with wrong shoes and suffered pains in my shins and my calves," she explained. "I twisted my ankle and began getting cramps." A new pair of running shoes put paid to the problems and she was inspired further after reading an article about members of the Bahrain Road Runners competing in a marathon in Germany. Four months later she ran her first race of a distance of 3km in the marathon relay on the island and then in the next few weeks ran 16km in the Cross Island Race organised by the running association. Encouraged by her performance, she signed up and ran the half-marathon in Bahrain and then in Slovakia. She achieved her dream last year by completing the Hamburg Marathon before following it up with a marathon in Athens in October and one in Bahrain in February. </p> <p>In London, Dunya will be among 60,000 runners competing either professionally or for the joy of the sport and at the same time raising money for charity. Dunya has teamed up with her friends Mohammed Idris, 43, and Christina Brown, 49. Together they have collected more than BD4,000 for a UK charity for homeless children called Alone. She said: "Although I am doing all this primarily for myself and the charity I would also like to inspire other women. Get up and run when you get the opportunity. Just do it!" Dunya hopes to complete the race within four hours and her ultimate sporting dream is to run a back-to-back marathon of a distance of 86km.
