She did, though, do something.

Sharon started training with Ian ‘Sparra’ Stapleton, and two years ago she completed her first half-marathon, at the Gold Coast. She reeled off another at the Goldie last year, and because 21ks didn’t quite seem the challenge anymore, upped the ante to a full ‘42 clicks’ marathon at this year’s festival of running.

The now super fit Sharon can’t see what all the fuss is about, though she concedes it’s been quite the journey.

“If you told me five years ago that I’d be running a marathon I would have told you you’re bloody kidding yourself,” Sharon laughed.

“When I started working with Sparra and began to lose weight, the running just developed. It gets a lot easier when you’re not carrying the weight and I just got hooked on it.”

In preparation for this year’s marathon - run in unusually warm conditions - Sparra set Sharon a 20-week block of training, with 60-70 kilometres of roadwork a week.

Sharon crossed the line in four hours, 56 minutes - just inside her goal time to beat five hours.

“Sparra had a different goal time in mind, but he’s insane,” she said.

Like all distance runs from half marathon up, Sharon had to find a way past the mental wall that lies in wait for all starters.

“It happened at the 23 kilometre mark and I just started losing my pace. I was texting Sparra as I was going along with all sorts of expletives. But I got to the 29 kilometre mark and thought, I’m just doing this!”

While a few weeks of light training is on the agenda for now, Sharon hasn’t ruled out another marathon on the Gold Coast next year, and maybe some half marathons at other venues like the scenic Sydney one in early 2016.