In the midst of driving rain and gusts of wind, thousands of runners in Boston desperately battled against the elements to cross the finish line of the world-famous marathon.

Yet one competitor was oblivious to the weather, high on the endorphins of running her sixth marathon in a year and speeding towards the finish line to collect a medal only a few have achieved.

In her usual shorts and club vest despite risks of hypothermia and traipsing through mud she likens to Glastonbury, Kimberley King completed the sixth of the world's major marathons and earned the largest medal in her collection, a silver circle detailing each of the cities she had run through over the past year.

It was the end of an incredible adventure for Kimberley, who some seven months prior was teaching primary school children in South Lanarkshire.

Her six star finisher medal commemorates running in the London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Tokyo and Boston marathons in just one year.

However Kimberley's journey towards becoming a multi marathon runner is tinged with sadness.

"We'd lost our mum through Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema in the December and the British Lung Foundation had been a great support to my mum and our family as well as carers," the 29-year-old from South Lanarkshire explains.

"I wanted to do something to try and raise money to give something back to them for everything they had done for us."

Inspired by the charity, Kimberley signed up for the Edinburgh Marathon in 2010, yet she admits the challenge was "a big jump" for someone who wasn't much of a runner.

Crossing the finish line she admits she had a touch of 'new runners syndrome', doing too much too quickly and picking up an injury in the process.

But the challenge had lit a fire within Kimberley. Soon she ran another two marathons at Loch Ness and in Dublin before being offered a charity place with the British Lung Foundation for a second time at the London Marathon in 2017.

A bucket list item for her, running the London Marathon was her first of the six majors and while she says she was aware of the challenge, her primary focus for the race was to raise money and simply enjoy the day.

But as she continued, running her second major in Berlin over a weekend it soon became clear that if she wanted to achieve her goal of running all six races, she would need to take a break from her career as a teacher.

"At this point I didn't realise [the Chicago marathon] clashed with school term time and I knew I wasn't going to be able to get the time off," Kimberley explains.

"So this was where the idea of taking a career break had come from, because I knew if I wanted to achieve the goal of doing all six majors that I would have to take some time off work."

Kimberley says her colleagues, friends and family were all supportive as she left the job she loved, sold her home and car and set off with just a rucksack to travel to the other side of the world to begin training for the four marathons which lay ahead.

"I think I thought I would have been more nervous about it but it felt like the right thing to do, it felt like one of these now or never moments," she says.

While her primary focus was to train with the help of a coach whom she had met prior to the London Marathon, Kimberley also enjoyed numerous adventures while travelling.

She went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, went bungee jumping and hiked the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand and even did some training on The Great Wall of China.

"Some of the trips I did, such as Australia, was part of a tour group so I was really lucky to meet some super people while I was away.

"It's been such a big adventure."

Although Kimberley had a strong support team at home, she was running each race with knowledge there was no friendly faces to spot in the crowd having travelled alone.

Yet she explains that the running community was so friendly and welcoming, that she didn't feel alone as soon as she hit the ground running.

"On race day you've got so many strangers willing you to do well which is such a nice thing even though you're there on your own you still feel you have support from the runners and the crowd," she says.

Having failed to achieve her target time in both Berlin and Chicago, she was delighted to achieve a personal best in New York in November and just a few months later, achieved her goal of a sub-four hour marathon in Tokyo.

"When it happened in Tokyo I was absolutely over the moon, I actually felt like I had won the marathon," she laughs.

With just one major left to run, sister Audrey and brother Gordon along with their respective partners travelled to Boston to see Kimberley over the finish line and collect the one medal she had been racing to achieve.

"It was so special, it really was. It was really special to have them there because they had all taken time off work to be there and had to arrange childcare.

"I didn't think for a minute they would be coming over so I was really lucky."

And so, drenched and cold yet full of joy, Kimberley completed her sixth marathon in one year a little over her personal best in a time of four hours and 10 minutes.

Yet she didn't care, she was just delighted to have completed her running adventure.

Since the race in April, Kimberley has returned to the classroom, where her proud pupils have taken turns trying on her numerous medals and getting their picture taken, which she quips has been "quite sweet".

Looking back on her incredible running adventure, Kimberley has no regrets and while she has her eye on a few more international races, her feet are firmly on the ground for now.

"I feel incredibly lucky that I've had the opportunity to do this," she says.

"I think I've been incredibly lucky that my school, colleagues, family and friends have been so supportive and it's probably going to take a long time to sink in and process all the fab things I've been able to do and the people I met along the way."

To round off her year of running, Kimberley will once again tackle the Edinburgh Marathon in May, her tenth since starting back in 2010 and taking her running career full circle.

"I think a lot of people thought I had lost my mind when I first told people what I was going to do," Kimberley reminisces.

"These wee running shoes have taken me on a big adventure."