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Olympic bronze medallist Brianne Theisen-Eaton breaks 4 hours in debut marathon

The retired heptathlete and 2016 world indoor pentathlon champion for Canada ran her first marathon on Sunday

Brianne Theisen-Eaton

2016 Olympic bronze medallist Brianne Theisen-Eaton ran her debut marathon on Sunday in Chicago.

The 28-year-old retired heptathlete – a specialization in seven events – completed the Chicago Marathon in 3:55:08. The Canadian heptathlon record holder ran her first marathon as a member on Team World Vision. “‘Go out slow.’ they said. ‘Be conservative.’ they said. Eff it! The faster I run, the faster I get done,” Theisen-Eaton posted to Instagram on Saturday evening before her debut 42.2K.

RELATED: Chicago Marathon race recap.

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Like a veteran marathoner, the 2016 IAAF world indoor pentathlon champion, and one of Canada’s most decorated track and field athletes of all-time, ran consistently. Her 5K splits were 28:02, 27:28, 27:28, 27:41, 27:40, 27:49, 27:29, 29:19, in that order, with a final 2.2K split of 12:16. Overall, her pace averages out to 5:34 per kilometre.

“As a heptathlete, it’s very much about speed and power,” Theisen-Eaton told Canadian Running in the months leading up to the race. “We trained doing 400’s, which is one lap of the track, so it wasn’t for distance. Doing a 10-minute run, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” explaining her longest distance in practice during her pro athletics career was about 1,200m. During marathon training, she was able to put in long runs as far as 32K.

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Now that the marathon is complete, Brianne and her husband Ashton, the decathlon world record holder, will focus on settling in to their new home in San Francisco, a move they made earlier this month from Oregon, according to the Register-Guard.

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