Kenny Wilson’s long wait for a marathon will finally come to an end this weekend when the Scotland international competes in the Cheshire elite race at Pulford, close to the England-Wales border.
The Moray athlete made his marathon debut in Frankfurt 18 months ago when he posted a time of 2hr 22min 39sec, which gave him seventh position in that year’s national rankings.
Wilson hoped to build on his debut performance by competing in the 2020 London marathon, but the race was initially postponed from April until October, then cancelled altogether because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “This weekend’s race will be the third marathon I’ve trained for since the start of 2020, so I’m just glad it’s going ahead. I only got the final confirmation a few days ago.
“To be honest, I don’t feel I’m in as good shape as I was last year, but we’ll see. Nothing has gone wrong, it just doesn’t feel as though it’s been such a smooth build-up.
“The number of sessions I’ve been happy with are in single figures, but most of these have been the longer marathon-paced runs, so maybe that’s a good sign.
“I do feel it has been coming together a bit better over the past few weeks, so maybe I’ve just timed it right.”
Wilson completed a full marathon training run in 2:21:38 last year and has set his sights on running faster on Sunday.
He said: “If I can get under 2:20, I’ll be delighted and I feel that’s possible – so long as I don’t start too quickly.”
He’s also hoping conditions are more favourable than he experienced in his only other race outing this year, when he finished fourth in 1:08:47 at a windswept elite-only half marathon at East Fortune.
On Sunday, Wilson and his rivals will compete over a 7.59-mile lap course with runners being set off in groups of 20 to fulfill Covid guidelines.
He said: “Everyone in my group will be of similar ability, so hopefully we can work together to get some good performances.
“Running multiple laps doesn’t bother me as I do a lot of my tempo runs on a one-mile loop of Cooper Park in Elgin.
“In fact, it’s maybe a bit of a bonus for me as psychologically I’m quite happy with it.”
Wilson admits he’s still relatively inexperienced at running marathons and sees the Cheshire race as an opportunity to broaden his experience ahead of bigger challenges ahead.
He said: “It’s a case of getting this one done and ticking the box before aiming for something better at London in October.
“The organisers seem confident it will go ahead, but if there’s not a mass race, hopefully there will be a championship race.”
