Woodstock Harrier Paul Brackett is the ultimate marathon man.

And this weekend, he is set to clock up a remarkable century at the Abingdon Marathon.

Brackett, 52, runs his 100th marathon on Sunday (Oct 16), having completed 96 of them since 2006.

He began marathon running in 1993 in Dublin, but it was only in 2006 that he really got the bug.

He recalled: “I first started running in the early 1980s with four of my brothers. We ran in local races, even winning a few team events.

“After my first marathon in 1993, I had a few years off and began again seriously in 2001.”

Until he entered the Abingdon Marathon in 2006, Brackett, who lives in Greater Leys, Oxford, had only completed four marathons, but in the last five years, he’s racked up the miles in a remarkable 95.

Sunday represents his ultimate target, but the evergreen Brackett says he won’t then be hanging up his running shoes.

He said: “It’s been a busy week getting ready for Sunday.

“But once I’ve completed the 100th, I won’t stop there. I will start looking at 200!”

Over the course of his remarkable adventure, Brackett has run in 40 road marathons, 39 trail mara-thons and 20 ultras.

With a personal best of 3hrs 21mins 25secs in the 26.2-mile race, he says he may look to improve that on Sunday.

Not surprisingly, Brackett doesn’t find much time for training.

“Because I do a lot of back-to-back marathons, I just use my base fitness from one race to another.

“If there’s a bit of a gap between races, I’ll go to the gym or do some work on the treadmill.

“Back in 2006, I had targeted doing 12 in 12 months, but I managed 16. Then I thought it would be good if I could do 50 before I was 50 years old, and I got to 56.

“I’ll just keep on running. I’ve really got the bug.”