Kinross-shire athlete Laura Muir starts her road to Rio across the familiar mud and hills of Cumbernauld at the Scottish National XC Relays tomorrow.
It is an eagerly-awaited fixture on the athletics calendar in Scotland with this year’s entry featuring a remarkable 536 teams and athletes from U13 to V50 a new record in the 23rd year of the event.
And, for British 1,500m gold medallist and Beijing World Championship finalist Muir, it marks the start of a winter season she hopes will give her the ideal preparation for the Olympics in Brazil next summer.
Muir races for Glasgow University Hares and Hounds on these occasions and in the past few years has used Cumbernauld and the National 4K Champs at Bellahouston in Glasgow in early November ahead of an indoor track campaign.
Once a Scottish U20 champion at cross country, Laura proved her class and her adaptability at the same event a couple of years ago when her second leg run lifted Glasgow Uni from 51st place to 13th in a women’s race which features three team members.
Tomorrow will be her first race at any distance since the August 25 final in Beijing where she finished fifth and headed the last two World gold medallists in a high-class race.
Muir’s coach Andy Young said: “Laura has started off really well in her training programme following a break after the World Champs. We like to do a bit of cross country at this time of year and the National XC Relays is a good event.
“I’m happy to let her decide whether she wants to run the opening leg for the university this time or pick up on second or third, where she can then work through the field. We will make that decision on Saturday at Cumbernauld.”
If Muir is favourite for the Women’s fastest lap, then Central AC and Edinburgh AC look likely to be locked in battle for the team golds.
Central AC are the holders and are looking for four-in-a-row.
Perthshire’s Morag MacLarty believes a strong bond of togetherness helps the holders.
“I think competition can only be good and I guess I can understand other clubs wanting to knock us off the top,” said MacLarty.
“When it comes to cross country relays, there’s never anything guaranteed and things can happen in a race. Again, though, I come back to a good spirit in our squad. There’s no doubt when you train with good groups then you train better without even realising it.”