A 3-hour marathon

At the 2012 BMO Vancouver Marathon I ran 3:00:29, improving my personal best by 5 minutes and 37 seconds. I am so happy ... and so tired!

The first half I covered in 90:09, before running the second half in 90:20.

The entire race I was focused on one thing: my finish time. I was gunning for a big personal record, 2:59:59. That's all I thought about.

I concentrated like never before, especially once I passed 25K. "From the halfway mark to 20 miles (32K) is the no-man's land of the marathon... Slowing during this portion of the marathon is often more a matter of not concentrating than of not being able to physically maintain the pace," according to Advanced Marathoning.

I noticed what was going on around me, and yet I didn't, as I was so focused on maintaining my pace. At 30K Tim apparently told me I was 9th woman. I didn't hear it, though I smiled at him to acknowledge his support, as I was high on focus and adrenaline. I reached 34K in 2:24:17.

I was elated to hold on to finish in 3:00:29 as I know I gave it all I had on the day.

Having crossed the line just 30 seconds short of the Sub-3 goal is a huge improvement from the 6 minutes and 7 seconds that separated me when I got up yesterday morning.

Tom Howard, me, John Hill w Master trophy

My 2:XX marathon will come. For now I am celebrating yesterday's fantastic result. As it turned out, I finished 5th woman overall and won the women's top master title for the second year in a row.

I am absolutely thrilled with my result yesterday because I confirmed to myself I am capable of running a 2:XX marathon. Confidence is everything; it has taken me 16 marathons to get this far, and I am looking to race No. 17 later this year.

Somewhere between 40 & 41K.

Tim, my No. 1 supporter, made sure I got to the start of the race on time, before cheering me on at 30K and again shortly before 41K.He also took these photos. Thank you!

A big thanks to my sponsor, Chief Chiro's Doctors Leah Stadelmann and Paul Fleming. Leah's treatments helped me sustain the training I needed to run a 3-hour marathon, thank you! Both Leah and Paul raced the half marathon yesterday, resulting in a fast PB and a stellar debut respectively.

Me, with Chief Chiro's Dr Leah and Dr Paul

Last but not least, thanks very much to the BMO Vancouver Marathon for hosting such a great event. The volunteers were superb, from start to finish; I especially loved the rockstar welcome every finisher received at the end.

I'll write a more detailed race report later.