Christine Dailey is thrilled after achieving a personal best time of 1hr 21min 35sec in the Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon in Canada on Sunday.

Dailey’s time, which bettered the 1:23:47 she accomplished at the same race last year, meant she finished second of 775 females in the 35 to 39 age category, with the 37-year-old finishing fourteenth of 5,563 females and 114th overall from 11,637 runners.

While she did not succeed in finishing under 1:20, which was her target heading into the race, Dailey was pleased with her effort.

“It’s really good to make progress,’’ Dailey told The Royal Gazette. “It’s almost a two-minute personal best for me, so it’s good to make gains like that.

“I feel good about my training and I feel confident that I’m on the right track. It’s really reassuring to get results like this, I definitely pushed my body to the limit and I’m feeling it.

“It was a perfect day of racing, sunny, a bit cold, but still good for running. I felt very strong the first eight miles, and then I just got into the grind.

“The last four miles were hard, my legs seized up and that’s what you expect. The course was interesting because the beginning was more downhill and the end was uphill.

“I feel I executed the race according to my plan. I don’t think I would have changed anything, other than at the end, I just wish I had a higher level of pain tolerance to push through.”

During the same race, the runner-up in the Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby achieved her best in the 10K. Dailey completed the distance in 38:12, to beat the 38:31 she recorded at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race in July.

“Now that I also had a personal best in the 10K, I’m inspired to do some 10K races and see if I can get that down to 37 minutes,’’ she said. “I’ll also do races locally to gear up for the race weekend in January.

“I’m strongly considering doing the Cambridge Beaches Triathlon on Sunday just to do something different. My swim and my run should be good, but I haven’t ridden a bike in nine months.

“I actually won the women’s race last year, but I will not plan to do that this time around. It will be more of a fun race for me, something different which will be good for my body.”

Dailey was part of a contingent of four female runners from Bermuda alongside national triathlon champion Marie-Lyne Dore, Allison Petty and Kristen Robinson.

Dore clocked 1:27:33 to finish fourth out of 556 in the 40 to 45 age group. She was the 34th female to cross the finish line and 238th overall.

“I almost quit but I still managed to finish in 1:27,” Dore said. “I’m not a runner but a triathlete.”

Robinson, who has been doing the Toronto race for years, had a time of 1:29:18 to settle for twelfth position in the 35 to 39 age category. She was 51st female and 328th in the whole race.

“I’ve done this race a number of times over the past 15 years,’’ Robinson said. “I absolutely love the course, the great crowds, the terrain was fast, and conditions were perfect on the day.

“I definitely encourage the Bermuda running community to participate in this half-marathon. Bermuda’s challenging training conditions set everyone up for success when racing there.”

Petty stopped the clock at 1:53:41 to finish 80th in the 40 to 45 age group. She was the 875th female across the line and 3,126th overall.

“This was my first half marathon after having twins and it has been hard to train for with the chaos life brings,” she said.

“It was an amazing atmosphere and I wanted to break the two-hour mark. It was my first time racing the Toronto half-marathon and was great to have my husband and daughter supporting me on the sidelines.

“It was so fun also to run with my Bermudian friends who did amazing. I will be back next year to chip away at my time.”