Marathon Derby -- and then suggested she might be up for a crack at the $5,000 bonus prize in a year's time.

Eatherley rounded the corner of Victoria Street into Cedar Avenue more than three minutes ahead of nearest rival Maria Conroy Haydon and barely broke sweat as she stretched her overall lead to nearly four minutes by the finish.

Her time of 1:23.08 put her well outside the arbitrary mark of 1:19.07 which would have won her the cash offered by sponsors Sports R Us, but the Bermudian -- who has had a season of almost uninterrupted success on the road in 1999 -- implied afterwards that it might not be beyond her in the future.

"It was never really in my mind. I couldn't do that time at this stage,'' she said, strongly emphasising the last three words of the sentence. "But I think it's a good challenge and a good goal to keep there if they want to for next year.'' Eatherley has practically swept the board in road running this year -- the one exception being the Front Street Mile -- showing the kind of form which won her a first May 24 triumph as long ago as 1993.

The wife of Brett Forgesson, who finished third in the men's race, put her re-emergence down to an easing of the domestic pressures of motherhood.

"We've finished having our family now,'' said the mother of one young son and daughter, "so I can really get back into the training.'' Eatherley, third 12 months ago, took an early lead and never looked back -- in both senses of the words -- building the gap between her and Conroy Haydon and third placed Karen Adams, who finished more than eight minutes adrift of the winner in 1:31.24.

Conroy Haydon, now 40, clocked 1:26.57 to make her the first female master through the tape.

"I knew I was the favourite but you can never take anything for granted in May 24,'' added Eatherley, who finished 18th overall at an average pace of 6.18 a mile over the 13.25-mile course.

"I expected the other girls to come with me, but they actually didn't. I ran on my own from start to finish.

"I felt fine all the way, although when I was almost at the end I started thinking I'd better put a bit more into it because you never know when the May 24 race is going to come up and get you.

"You don't want to use it all up before you get to about 12 miles. You need a bit to get to the finish.'' Elsewhere, Lynn Patchett, returning to serious action after a training accident which left her with a broken ankle and put her out of last month's Boston Marathon, finished fourth, clocking 1:32.07. Georgia Belboda charged into Bernard Park to complete the course just 15 seconds behind her, for fifth place and 57th overall, while there was a gap of more than three minutes to the following female competitor, Julia Hawley, who recorded a time of 1:35.46.

Defending champion Jane Christie was forced to withdraw from the race after going down with a chest infection last week.