MARATHON runner Beth Allott is aiming to get back on track and live her Olympic dream.

Allott, who lives in Whitefield, has always wanted to run a marathon in Athens -- and with the Olympics due to take place there next year she is making it her main objective.

Last year Allott hit an all-time low when a nagging leg injury scuppered her plans to run in the Commonwealth Games marathon in Manchester.

"I was all set to give up," said Allott, who celebrates her 26th birthday on Sunday. "I was prepared to just sit back, wait to see if the natural urge to compete came back and if not, get on with something else in my life.

"Now I'm going to give it a go over the next couple of years and if nothing else, I can at least say I tried again.

"My immediate targets are the Berlin marathon in September and then I want to go out to Australia around about October time to continue my training.

"I intend to spend between six months and a year out there and I aim to study at the Sports Institute at Canberra. There's lots of fabulous, different terrain there -- mountains, trails, grassland.

"Here I tend to do most of my running on roads, which is not the best, and it gets very hard to motivate myself sometimes," admitted Beth.

The Sports Institute has had some very prestigious visitors in the past. "Some of the marathon legends that I aspire to like Rob Costello, the Irish runner Sonia O'Sullivan and Melissa Moon from New Zealand have all been there," said Beth, who will is seeking sponsorship to help fund her trip Down Under.

"I will start off here at home with my training and will enter a few local races. I will need to assess myself after each race. I know I am going to be slow, but come the summer I hope to be starting my marathon build-up in earnest.

"With it being the Olympics in Athens next year I thought I would give it another go. I would love to run a marathon in Athens," said Beth.