| Mara Yamauchi returns to lead British challenge in Great North Run • Briton back after five-month absence from racing• She admits uncertainty over how she will performMara Yamauchi will lead the British challenge in Sunday's 30th Great North Run following a rather less hectic buildup than the one she endured to her last race. The 37-year-old saw a six-day travel nightmare scupper her hopes in April's London Marathon, getting to the capital from her training camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by plane, car, taxi and private propeller plane via New York, Lisbon, Madrid and Paris after the Icelandic ash cloud grounded flights. She went on to finish a weary 10th.The Oxford-born athlete has not raced since, having opted to miss the European Championships in Barcelona in the summer to focus on the New York City Marathon in November. She will go into the north-east half marathon unsure of how she will perform. "I've just come back from a month of altitude training in San Moritz in Switzerland, which went really well," Yamauchi said."In June I had a problem with my foot so I was off running for about a week and I was building up after that. I don't think I'm in personal best shape [Yamauchi's best for the half marathon is 68min 29sec] but if I could run close to 70 minutes I'd be happy. As this is my first race since London I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm just really looking forward to getting out there, giving it everything and seeing where my training's at. New York is my main aim for the autumn. It will be a really good marker for that."The Briton's main challenges will come in the shape of Romania's Constantina Dita, the reigning Olympic marathon gold medallist, the former champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia and Portugal's Ana Dulce FĂ©lix, who was third a year ago.Yamauchi, who won the New York Half Marathon in March in a course record 69min 25sec, will be bidding to become the first British winner of the event since Paula Radcliffe in 2003. "The time Paula ran that day was very, very fast," she said. "It would be really fantastic if I could win but I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself."Having finished sixth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and second in last year's London Marathon, Yamauchi passed up the chance of a European Championship gold by not competing in Barcelona. That, though, is not a decision she regrets. "It's easy to say, comfortable sitting on your sofa: 'I could have done well in that race,'" she said. "Three marathons in a year is really a huge amount to ask. If you recover very quickly that's fine but it takes me a while to recover from races. And Barcelona was a very hot race."Athleticsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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