It is seven years since Dawn Richardson set the women’s record in the Bermuda Triangle Full Challenge.

Her combined time for the mile, 10K and marathon was a fraction over four hours. Since then no one has gone close to that mark.

Richardson was a Bermuda resident when she set the record in 2009. Since those heady days, she has returned to her native England. She still runs the occasional marathon and last summer completed in her first Ironman triathlon.

She has pleasant memories of her time on the Island and her record-setting Bermuda Triangle Challenge weekend.

“Training was always a huge part of my life in Bermuda, mainly because of the people I was blessed to train with, such as Victoria Fiddick, Mike Osborn and everyone at Swan’s Running Club,” she said.

During her build-up to the 2009 event, she trained most lunchtimes in a gym, doing body pump or aerobics. On Mondays and Wednesdays she did medium pace runs, while on Tuesdays and Thursdays she upped the pace with track sessions.

Friday nights were mile repeats, while Saturdays featured tennis in the mornings and a 20-mile long run in the evening, “finishing in the darkness and going to the beach afterwards to put my legs in the water which I always found therapeutic”.

She particularly hated the Friday night mile repeats, but she had to do them “in order to prepare for four races in three days”.

Although the Challenge is a three-race event, Richardson also qualified for the KPMG Bermuda Front Street Mile for local women in 2009, a separate race, which meant she was on double duty for the first evening of Bermuda Marathon Weekend.

She paced herself during the first two days of the three-day event, knowing that the marathon on the final day was her favoured distance.

“My Friday night mile times reflected a steadiness in my races, although it was difficult not to get carried away. Saturday’s 10K was again steady, and then what was left was used up in the marathon, which I knew would be my strength.”

Her times were 5:45 for the mile, 41:20 for the 10K and 3:13.28 for the marathon. Only one person, men’s winner Ben Jones, managed a faster combined set of results that year.

In the local women’s mile race, which was held a little over an hour after the Challenge mile race, Richardson came third in 5:39.

Although the Challenge proved to be an energy-sapping three days, she did not remember ever feeling like giving up.

“In all races you go through hard times and you have to talk your body out of it. I have lots of mantras which I use when the going gets tough. At the end of the day your body will do whatever you tell it to do.”

Her best marathon time is 2:57:13, although she came tantalisingly close to matching that in the Toronto Marathon in 2008, when she won the women’s title in 2:57:46. She was helping to promote Bermuda’s running festival, which at the time was known as the Bermuda International Race Weekend, and was accompanied by friend and training partner Victoria Fiddick, another of the Island’s leading road runners.

“Victoria and I couldn’t decide which pace band to wear, sub three hours or 3:15.

“I was conscious there had been a lot of publicity about us as we were promoting International Race Weekend and I didn’t want to fail. Victoria looked at me and said ‘if you don’t try, you won’t know’. These are words that I often quote to other athletes and remind myself of.”

The conditions in Toronto were more favourable to fast times than the heat and humidity of Bermuda. However, Richardson had not run a sub-3 time for at least four years and, at 36, she wasn’t expecting to do so in 2008.

“I remember going along and having a massive argument with the lead bike because he thought I was first lady and I was adamant that that wasn’t possible. I was wrong! I was thinking I’m on for sub-three hours, I’m in first place, just keep it going.”

The Toronto win was one of her career highlights. she has stayed in touch with the organisers and it was three years ago, while having dinner with the race director, Jay Glassman, that she learnt her Bermuda Triangle Challenge record still stood.

Richardson has a great fondness for Bermuda and has made numerous return visits since relocating back to northern England. She is proud that she represented the Island in the Toronto Marathon and at the XII Island Games in Greece in 2007, where she took bronze in the half-marathon.

Last summer she completed her first Ironman triathlon and raised $7,500 for a cancer charity.

“In retrospect, I wished I had tried triathlons whilst still in Bermuda; the sea is much warmer there!”

In October, she completed the Amsterdam Marathon in 3:13:05, which qualifies her for the Boston Marathon. She will run in Boston next year and said it would likely be her last marathon.

Her Bermuda Triangle Full Challenge record of 4hr 0min 35sec is under threat this weekend from one of the Island’s fastest road runners, Rose-Anna Hoey.

Richardson said: “I am aware that Rose-Anna trains with Ashley Estwanik and Victoria Fiddick. You couldn’t wish for more experience mentors.

“I’m sure Rose-Anna will shatter my record. Training techniques, equipment and diet have come along way since I set the record and I think Rose-Anna is a far superior athlete than myself. I wish her the best of luck.”