Listen to this article
Approximately 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created using text-to-speech, an artificial intelligence-based technology.
Fresh off her strongest of 10 marathons, Malindi Elmore set the Canadian Women's Masters record (age group 45-49) with a time of two hours, 24 minutes, 54 seconds on a warm Sunday in Valencia, Spain.
Her performance placed 12th, one minute 21 seconds faster than last year and 14 minutes faster than the previous masters ranking by Christa Duchesne of Brantford, Ontario, dated March 5, 2023.
It was Elmore's third-fastest career time, three seconds behind her 2020 Houston run and behind her personal best of 2:23:30 in Berlin on Sept. 24, 2023. Natasha Wodak, Elmore's good friend and sometime training partner, has held the national record of 2:23:12 since September 2022.
“Today was another solid marathon for me,” Elmore said in an Instagram post. “Six years of consistently running in the 2:23-2:28 range every year – and at age 45.75, every month now counts,” she laughed, “I can’t take that for granted. “Every race is difficult, special, grueling, beautiful and terrible at the same time.”
Elmore, who withdrew from her World Athletics Championships debut in September due to injury, had hoped for a personal best but unexpected temperatures of 20C and wind made things difficult.
“I rode the 10km obstacle course between 25 and 35km before finding a new rhythm in the last seven kilometres,” said the three-time Olympian. “I reset my goals and decided to go after 2:25…[and] did it with six seconds left.”
Joycilyn Jepkosgei of Kenya won the race in 2:14:00, a new course record considered one of the fastest marathons in the world.. This is also fourth fastest women's marathon in history.
Elmore, of Kelowna, British Columbia, suffered from posterior tibial tendonitis in her right foot during the Canadian 10K road championships on May 24 in Ottawa, and it flared up during critical training for the world championships on July 3.
“I had to change a lot over the summer, I missed about six weeks of training and I was too far behind in my recovery to be ready for the world championships,” she told CBC Sports. at that time.
Elmore was the only Canadian to compete in the Paris Olympic Marathon last year and clocked 2:31:08 in her second 42.2-kilometre race at the Summer Games.
At the 2021 Olympics, she braved the scorching heat in Sapporo, Japan, to finish ninth in 2:30:59, the fastest time by a Canadian woman in an Olympic marathon at a Games without a boycott. In October 2022, Elmore won her first Canadian Marathon title and finished fourth overall at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Elissa Legault, another elite Canadian in Sunday's race, finished 23rd in 2:29:05, setting a Quebec record, more than four minutes faster than her previous record of 2:33:27, set May 29, 2022, in Ottawa. 31-year-old native of Ile-Perrot.Quebec recently told KMag about running in Quebec that she's been thinking about a provincial brand for several years.
“I can’t wait to see if the race day magic works.” she said.
At the finish line on Sunday, a beaming Legault told KMag: “The crowd and the huge pack were pulling me along. I was already at a little over two hours and 30 minutes pace… I felt really good about halfway through. That's when I started to pick up the pace.
“At the 27-28 kilometer, difficulties began. My boyfriend told me the estimated time, and when he said 2:29:18, then I thought: “Go, this is my day.”
