The pair has now completed all six of the Abbott World Marathon Majors – London, New York,  Berlin, Boston, Tokyo and Chicago.

They made this elite list – and have got the medals to prove it – following the London marathon on April 22 – joining an illustrious list of just 84 Australian names of which only 16 are women.

Cheering the couple on were Jane’s parents Alison and Anthony Hughes from Merewether, her mother’s sister and Jane’s nephew who had flown in from Atlanta.

The support crew were perhaps a little more emotional than most in the crowd – Alison was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year and was uncertain she was going to be able to make the long trip to see her daughter race.

But make it she did and Jane was able to give her mum a kiss on her way past. An unbelievable feat that Jane and Stephen both managed to even see her as the crowd is estimated to be 750,000 –  with rows five and six deep of people lining the route.

“We were looking for Mum at the 28 kilometre mark as that’s where we knew she would be and we both saw her, they had a big Australian flag and mum was in a wheelchair,’ said Jane.

The London race temperature was the hottest in its history with 75 of the 39,000 runners hospitalised and one runner dying.

“I was cramping badly at the 21 kilometre mark, from the knee to the groin but I needed to see mum at that 28 kilometre mark’ said Jane.

“When it got hard I just thought mum’s fighting something, I've got to keep fighting the pain and the cramps and keep going.

“The last two kilometres I was almost like a robot, there was no way I wasn't going to finish.”

Jane, a fantastically fit mother of two has always been a sporty type. She is a familiar face in Dungog as a former customer service officer at Dungog Shire Council until she resigned to help care for her mother. Stephen is a local businessman, owning Cafe Dungog in Dowling Street.

Stephen, who says he is “always looking for challenging things to do” put his name in the ballot for the New York marathon back in 2013 as they were going there on holiday.

He won a spot in the iconic road race which features the world’s best athletes and has a million spectators lining the route and millions more watching live on television.

“I was excited for about 10 seconds and then the fear set in,” he said.

“I just recalled running in a half marathon and the absolute joy of finishing and yet watching the marathoners who were still running and would have to do that same distance all over again and thinking they were nuts and more importantly, how could they do it ?”

But he says after that race he loved it and was hooked. 

“The running culture is so joyful,” he said.

Jane’s first half marathon was the Dungog Dash and Dawdle in August 2014. They put their names in the ballot for the Chicago marathon that year – and both got in. Two months after the Dash and Dawdle they joined more than 40,000 other runners to sweep through 29 neighbourhoods of Chicago as 1.7 million people cheered them on.

“That was a seeded race with a field of 40,000 runners – with around 35,000 people starting in front of Jane and yet she still managed to come out of the "party wave" and run a Boston qualifier time,” said Stephen.

While Stephen is normally seeded ahead of Jane the couple relished the chance to stand together at the start line of the 2016 New York marathon as they were both sub elite time qualifiers.

“They shot off a huge cannon and played "New York, New York" as we were looking towards the Manhattan skyline and running all that way from Brooklyn to Central Park.” 

They follow a 16 week training preparation for the big marathons, Jane running around 80 to 90 kilometres a week and Stephen getting up to 135 kilometres a week.

Their favourite training tracks? Dungog Common and Fosterton Loop offer a perfect amount of challenging hills and heat to prepare them. There’s no better place according to Stephen: 

“The quality of the air, the amazing scenery, the freedom with no city congestion,”

The end of the race  is always emotional for Stephen.

“I generally burst into tears at the finish line. Every time. How can you not be inspired by seeing the very best of people.

“Every cell in your body says stop. Your eyelashes say stop, your toenails definitely say stop. Every hair on your body says stop. But if I have to wobble down that finisher’s chute, I’ll get there.”

To add an even greater challenge to the London marathon the couple had actually competed in the Rome marathon just two weeks prior - which started and ended at the famed Colosseum.

Before the London race Jane’s favourite marathon had been Chicago “because it was my first” and then Boston “because I had a qualifying time and it is the grandest and oldest marathon.” 

“But London is right up there now,” she said.

Stephen also ran his first sub 3 hour marathon in Houston in January this year with an impressive time of 2.59 bringing his tally to 12 marathons overall and three already in 2018.  Jane has run 11 marathons.

Stephen says it is amazing to think they can run the same course on the same day as Olympic champions and world record holders.

“Ninety five per cent of the field are behind me, but the winner is still an hour ahead of me.

“The winners run at a speed like they are escaping a burning building. I can’t run one kilometre at their marathon speed.

“They are dynamite.”

** There are 3822 Six Star Finishers and more than 4,000 people have scaled the summit of Mt Everest since Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first did so in 1953.