Claire Hallissey is already making plans to run the Virgin London Marathon next year in a bid to strengthen her dream of making the Great Britain team for the Olympics.

The 28-year-old won’t be relying on her marvellous PB of 2:29:27 for sixth place in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon earlier this month.

Putting her third Brit behind Paula Radcliffe and Jo Pavey this year, it carved six minutes off her PB and was an Olympic ‘A’ qualifying time.

But with Mara Yamauchi, Liz Yelling and Louise Damen lurking in the wings, Hallissey is well aware she may have to go even quicker to make the team.

“At the moment I am having a complete rest – well, from running anyway. I have still been swimming every day – to let my body recover properly,” said Hallissey.

“I’m off to Costa Rica for a two-week holiday and then plan a gradual return to running once I get back. I will also be heading out to visit Imogen Ainsworth (a Bristol & West AC team-mate and former training partner, who is studying at New Mexico University) in Albuquerque in November to get a taste of what the altitude training is like there.

As for her second marathon in America, where she is now based after her husband relocated to Washington DC through work, Hallissey admits she was a little surprised at her success as her build-up was far from ideal owing to an ongoing knee problem.

“After New York last year I had 2:31/2:30 as a target for my next marathon, which was supposed to be London,” she said.

“With all of the injury problems that I have had since then, 10 weeks out from Chicago I still wasn’t sure if I would be able to get back to full training in time to be fit enough for the race.

“As it became increasingly obvious in the build-up to the race that the weather was going to be a little on the hot side, I became even more doubtful of hitting my target time.

“Luckily by the time we lined up for the start, I had managed to convince myself that a 2.31/2.30 race was still possible, and decided that I just had to go out at that pace and trust that I had the mental strength to keep it going right to the finish.

“I managed to run almost even splits for the race, even speeding up slightly in the second half, and so the plan definitely worked.

“I was also lucky that Boulder experienced record-breaking temperatures in August while I was there for my pre-marathon altitude training, so I was quite used to running in the race day temperatures.”