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NAIROBI, Oct. 18-- World marathon record holder Mary Keitany is not under pressure to improve on her personal best time as she puts her title on the line in New York marathon on Nov. 5. Keitany, 35, has won the New York Marathon each of the last three years, including a dominating performance last year as she dropped off her rivals midway to finish the course on a solo run in 2:24:26. Her 3:34 margin of victory was the greatest in the women's race since 1980, and she became the first able-bodied runner since Grete Waitz to win the event three years in a row. "I like running fast and now I feel am at my optimum best," she said Wednesday in Iten. "But when you prepare for such competition, you have always to be aware that anything can happen and hurdles and challenges is what make marathon running fun." Keitany is a two-time winner of the World Marathon Majors, taking the series titles in 2017 and 2016. This year, she won her third London Marathon in April, breaking the women's only marathon record in a blistering time of 2:17:01. However, she has ruled out attempting to break the record, saying it only falls into place if all conditions are intact. "For such a race, you don't plan to run a world record time, but run as fast as you can. Then see where it leads you to," she said. In the build-up to the New York Marathon, Keitany's husband Charles Koech has hinted she is in similar shape to when she ran 2:17:01 in the London Marathon in April. | 
