2 days to race day, and I’m feeling pretty relaxed. When I was younger I would allow myself to get quite worked up before big races, but I’m happy to avoid this now as it doesn’t increase the chance of me performing well while hugely increasing the level of disappointment if I perform badly. The other guys over here are great too, plenty of jokes and resting is ideal for me pre-race. It’s also been nice to sit back and watch the first 3 races as a spectator.
Steering my legs towards freshness on race day has been as problematic as ever, with more running in terrain than usual making my legs feel heavy. I’ve run mostly on the road in the past week and I’ve started to feel sharper as of yesterday, although not as sharp as earlier this year. This has been a little disappointing to realise – although I have been training as hard as ever in the past 2 months, I haven’t been about to replicate the form I had leading into Oceania in April.
Regardless of not being in the shape I have been dreaming about, I am still in better shape than in my 2 previous World Championships which were plagued by injury and sickness and I’m optimistic about getting some notable results for New Zealand
The long distance race on Tuesday will be a physical battle the whole way. I will need to navigate finely at times, but most of the map reading will be to identify the best routes. The terrain is going to have many tracks and open fields, and piecing together these speed boosts will be everyone’s goal.
