She will be on a plane home from the USA, where she will have just competed in the 10-kilometre race at the prestigious Payton Jordan Invitational meet at Stanford University.

It's been a rapid rise for Pashley, better known by the Border community by her maiden name Ellie O'Kane.

Back in 2009, after playing A-grade netball for North Albury on a Saturday, Pashley turned up for her first Nail Can on the Sunday and finished in third place behind top Melbourne runner Tarli Bird and Albury's Colleen Middleton.

She returned in 2010 and duly won the race and then repeated her efforts with wins in 2011 and 2015.

These days Pashley is plying her trade on the international stage and has put together a very impressive CV the past three years.

She took out the 2018 Sydney City to Surf in a time of 46.21 - the fourth fastest by a female.

Add to that her second place at the Okayama Half Marathon last December in 1.09.20, along with a third at the Melbourne Zatopek 10,000m (32.17) in the same month.

Pashley has completed four marathons since 2016 and has lowered her time from 2.46.11 at Melbourne in 2016 to 2.26.21 at Nagoya, Japan in March this year.

This 20-minute time improvement equates to finishing six kilometres ahead of her 2016 marathon.

It places her seventh on the all-time list of Australian female marathon runners.

These performances have qualified Pashley to represent Australia in the marathon at the IAAF World Athletics Championships at Doha in September.

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"I'll go to Doha, most likely for the marathon unless I can get the 10km qualifying time (31:50) over the next few months," she said.

"I'd rather do the 10km there due to the heat in Doha."

She also has one eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"I'd love to go to the Olympics, I've already run the qualifying time for the marathon, but they'll only be able to take the top-three, so I have to sit and wait and see how many people overtake me over the next 12 months," she added.

Pashley's Nagoya Marathon time is the fastest by an Australian female this year.

Albury-Wodonga can be very proud of the girl from Splitters Creek, no more so than her first running coach, Border identity Clive Vogel.

"She's done alright for a netballing-surfie chick, I tell her," Vogel laughed.

"But seriously I couldn't be more proud of what she's achieved and with the way she is improving almost every time she races.

"I suspect we haven't seen the best of her yet."

Pashley is hoping to return home to run Nail Can next year.