Keeping up a good pace is something Kimberley Doerksen does regularly as a personal trainer with Innovative Fitness.
But the Port Moody long-distance runner had no idea it would result in her winning the BMO Vancouver Marathon on Sunday.
Yet after leading the pack for several of the 42.2 km, Doerksen managed a record-breaking time of two hours, 36 minutes, 59 seconds, coming in first among female runners and setting a race record for Vancouver-area women.
In an interview with The Tri-City News, Doerksen, 23, said she is proud of her accomplishment but also gave credit to her Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club teammate Bryan Andrews in helping her maintain her momentum throughout.
"We tried to hold onto the pace as long as we could," Doerksen said, adding later: "This is the first marathon I ran as a competitive athlete in the sense of being fully healthy and competitive in the distance. It was a personal best by 40 minutes."
Exhilarated when the gun went off, but careful not to charge out too quickly, she still remembers each passing kilometre, how she managed to pull away from the second-place finisher and how depleted she felt near the end of the run.
"It felt so slow, and like I was crawling."
But what lay ahead was a goal Doerksen didn't even know she had. Urged on by teammates, her parents and other friends and supporters, Doerksen burst through the tape - and though she was emotionally and physically exhausted, she was also elated.
"Knowing that I was in first and finishing in first, it was a complete surprise," she said. "I was not going out as that and having that as my goal."
She spent the rest of the day recuperating and enjoying Sunday dinner with her family.
Having completed the Boston Marathon in 2012 and representing SFU in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competition south of the border, the Kinesiology student has come to realize long-distance running is for her. She prefers it over the shorter distances because she is able to get into a zone and keep the pace for a long time.
Perhaps, marathon running may even turn into the career?
"That would be amazing," Doerksen said.
