Career
She set both an Australian record and her personal best time of 9:18.35, by finishing third in the women"s 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2008 IAAF Golden League Meeting in Oslo, Norway. She struggled to improve her best times in her early twenties, however, and retired from athletics to focus on her career as a journalist. Five years later - married and with two children, MacFarlane resumed running as a personal goal to get fit and enter a fun run in Hobart, Tasmania.
Under new coach, Max Cherry, MacFarlane competed for the Sandy Bay Harriers Club - improving her best times over every distance from 400m to 10km.
After a very successful international racing schedule, tragedy struck at the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan. The Chinese competitor accidentally caused MacFarlane"s shoe to come off, which ultimately caused her to withdraw from the race due to severe blistering and injury to her foot.
MacFarlane returned to world-class form in 2008, but a few months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, her coach, Max Cherry died at the age of 81. MacFarlane represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she competed in the first ever women"s 3000 m steeplechase, along with her teammate Victoria Mitchell.
MacFarlane ended her international athletics competition with the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
She maintains her involvement with Australian athletics and is also a creative and corporate writer