CHARLOTTE Purdue stubbornly stuck to her race plan as she led the home challenge in the women's marathon at the World Championships in London.

Purdue, in her first major global championship, finished a creditable 13th in only her fourth race over the distance, clocking two hours, 29.48 minutes.

Kenyan runner Rose Chelimo, running for Bahrain, took control to take gold, ahead of two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat and American bronze medallist Amy Cragg.

But 26-year old Purdue - who went 25 seconds quicker earlier this year on a less demanding course around the capital - had plenty of reasons to be upbeat.

"I finished strong and I felt great so I’m really happy with how the race went," she said.

"I had my watch on so I knew what times people ahead of me were running and I just knew it was too fast at the start.

"But it’s a marathon, not a 10km, so I had to hold back and I knew they would come back to me. It paid off in the end, so I’m really happy.

"The atmosphere was unbelievable, so good, I knew it would be but it was beyond what I thought it would be.

"The course was tougher than I expected, it was very twisty and the hill was quite significant I thought, especially on the last lap.

"I’m learning to follow my own race plan. It’s easy to get carried away in a championship race because you can see the front and you want to be there, but a marathon is a marathon for a reason, otherwise I’d be doing a 10km.

"So I just have to keep focussed on my own race and that’s what I did."

Purdue is now eyeing next year's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, an event where she made her senior debut in 2010, finishing fourth and sixth in the 10,000m and 5,000m, respectively.

"I’ve got to be selected first but it is my next target," she added.

"I’ve done two marathons back to back now and I just need to pace myself a bit because I’m only 26 and I’ve hopefully got a long career ahead of me and I don’t want to burn out too quickly.

"This is my first championship marathon so I have learned a lot. I didn’t go to Rio last year so this was my first test.

"It was a lot different to a normal marathon. The London Marathon you’re against the clock and you don’t really have that many people to race, whereas this was a proper race, which I love."

You can help the next generation of young British athletes by getting involved in SportsAid Week this September with London 2012 hero Greg Rutherford MBE. Find out more about how you can support the week of fun and fundraising by visiting www.sportsaid.org.uk/sportsaidweek