{"id":691263,"date":"2026-05-24T20:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691263\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:24:12","slug":"elissa-legault-leads-canadians-at-ottawa-marathon-with-second-straight-sub-230","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691263\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9lissa Legault leads Canadians at Ottawa Marathon with second straight sub-2:30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s Tamarack Homes Ottawa International Marathon was chilly, windy and rainy\u2013but thrilling, nonetheless. While no saw Canadians reached the women\u2019s podium, Quebec\u2019s \u00c9lissa Legault was the top Canadian, placing eighth overall with a second straight sub-2:30 performance.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian-Swedish star Abeba Aregawi dominated the event, stopping the clock in 2:23:12 (within a minute of the 2:22:17 course record) to win by more than two minutes. Ethiopia\u2019s Tahoe Kuftu took second in 2:25:33, while Kenya\u2019s Betty Chepkorir ran 2:25:51 for third.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very tired, but I\u2019m so proud,\u201d Legault told Canadian Running.\u00a0\u201cIt was so nice to hear everyone cheering on the course\u2013I heard my name so many times, and that really pushed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first half of the race, Legault, 31, ran in a pack with Canadian marathon record holder Natasha Wodak, before pulling away shortly before the 30K mark. She said the course was hard\u2013especially with the hills and the wind. \u201cThe last 5K [was the hardest part],\u201d she said. \u201cWe had quite a headwind for a good part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising through the Canadian ranks<\/p>\n

The performance fell within seven seconds of her 2:29:05 personal best. She set that mark at the Valencia Marathon in December, taking more than four minutes off her previous best (2:33:27, set in 2022) and recording the ninth-fastest marathon in Canadian history. She entered Ottawa believing that with the right conditions, another PB was possible, but was primarily focused on positioning herself well among the top Canadian finishers.<\/p>\n

Since her debut at the 2018 Marathon du P\u2019tit Train du Nord in Quebec, where she ran in 2:59, Legault has lowered her time by more than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"jade\u00c9lissa Legault and Jade B\u00e9rub\u00e9 embracing after the 2026 Ottawa Marathon. Photo: RunOttawa<\/p>\n

Wodak was the second Canadian finisher, taking 11th overall in 2:33:15, while Quebec\u2019s Jade B\u00e9rub\u00e9, making her marathon debut, was the third Canadian and 13th overall in 2:36:09.<\/p>\n

See here<\/a> for results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s Tamarack Homes Ottawa International Marathon was chilly, windy and rainy\u2013but thrilling, nonetheless. While no saw Canadians reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[238854,49,48,145725,238856,20739,250919,204213,29412,252681],"class_list":["post-691263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-2026-ottawa-marathon","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elissa-legault","tag-natasha-wodak","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-marathon","tag-ottawa-race-weekend","tag-running-news","tag-top-canadian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}