The 56-year-old took on the ambitious goal after already completing a half-marathon, the challenging 10km Run the Rock at Hanging Rock, Echuca’s Sweat versus Steam and various other running competitions around Australia.
And not only did she run the entire 42.2km at the recent Shepparton Running Festival, she did it in 4 hours and 32 minutes.
A huge feat considering doctors thought she would never walk again, let alone run.
“When I got to the finish line, I was full of happiness but also sadness because my dad wasn’t there,” she said.
While Ange’s late father sadly couldn’t be there to cheer her on from the sidelines, he was still pushing her on in spirit.
“I believe my father’s spirit was on my left shoulder and I said to him ‘Papa I need your help. I’ve got 4km to go and I don’t know if I can do it, but I don’t want to walk. I want to keep running’,” she said.
“And he said to me ‘Ange, you can do this. You had to learn to walk in the hospital and this is nothing compared to the pain you went through and what you had to do to get out of the bed after your accident. You can do this’.
“So then I straightened up and I just started to run like Forrest Gump. And I started to relive all my hospital memories and I nearly had tears coming down my face while I was running. But I said ‘no, don’t cry. This is one of your big goals’. And I did it.”
It has been a miracle comeback for the former travelling division one nurse whose life changed forever in 2015.
She was driving from Geelong to Leitchville when her car hit a ditch, flipped and crashed only 3km from home.
Angela was flown to The Alfred intensive care unit where she had spinal fusion surgery and began fighting for her life.
Doctors told her she had three options - die, remain on life support or never walk again.
But Angela had a better idea and after months of lying in a hospital bed and countless rehabilitation sessions, she slowly started to walk again.
Then she started running and she hasn’t stopped.
And now she’s completed a marathon, the next events on her list include the Harvest Run in the Yarra Valley in September, Echuca’s Sweat versus Steam in October, the Run4Geelong in November and next year’s Pan Pacific Masters.
"That's speed running over 5km so I am going to try to beat my last time of 24 minutes 13 seconds," she said.
"There's still a bit of running in the legs yet. It's become like a drug to me. I just love running."
Angela said the key to her success was the power of positive thinking.
“It’s hard to fathom what I’ve been through. It’s like I’ve been through a dark tunnel. A bad dream. I think ‘has this really happened to me?’” she said.
“When you go in your car, you expect to come out of it. It took me four months to get out of my car. I feel like I’ve woken up from this bad dream and the sky’s the limit and I feel like I can do anything in my life.
“Never say never. Looking at people in wheelchairs, I think ‘that could have been me’. I was so close. I think my spine was a millimetre away from being severed.
“I am so grateful and I believe what you give out, you get back.”
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