Sixteen years after her last Olympic appearance, Malindi Elmore of Kelowna is again knocking on the front door of the world’s biggest sports spectacle.
“I’m hoping that I will have a spot of the start line in Tokyo at the Olympics in August,” Elmore told Global News.
This time, though, Elmore is running the longest Olympic distance of them all — the marathon.
“Canada will select up to three people, and, right now, I’m in a strong position to be selected,” said Elmore.
A strong position may be a bit of an understatement. She should be a shoe-in for the national marathon team.
That’s because on Sunday, Elmore clocked a 2 hour, 24 minute and 50-second performance on at the Chevron Houston Marathon.
“I just knew during the race I was having a great race,” said Elmore.
Elmore’s run wasn’t just great, it was record breaking.
The Kelowna marathoner shaved two minutes and four seconds off the previous Canadian women’s marathon record time.
While 2:04 may not seem like much, for elite marathoners, it’s a lifetime.
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“I didn’t have any doubts. I didn’t have any negativity the whole race. I just felt really strong,” Elmore said.
Elmore’s incredible time is proof that when it comes to her love of running, the Okanagan product continues to re-invent herself.
“I kind of had my track career and then I switched to triathlon for a number of years, and then I switched into marathon running,” Elmore said.
At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Elmore represented Canada in the 1,500 metres.
After a long career in track, Elmore hung up her spikes in 2012 with the idea of moving on in life. She was even inducted into the Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2017.
But Elmore can’t stand still. The 39-year-old former Stanford University track star ran into the local hall of fame, then ran right out of it.
“Yeah. I came out of retirement. Retirement was boring,” Elmore said.
However, at no point did Elmore ever dream of a return to the Olympics.
“When I hung up my spikes in 2012, I hung up my Olympic dreams,” she said.
Elmore will find out if she has been picked for the Tokyo Olympics sometime in May.
In the meantime, Elmore will keep on running, like a fine Swiss watch.
“I think I’ll run forever,” Elmore said. “I just love it.”
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