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The week before the race felt strange, like time was passing too fast and too slow. I had got myself into the shape of my life and all I had to do was keep ticking over, not do anything stupid, not get sick. It was of course a week of niggles, along with a slight sore throat and headache. Having fallen ill right before most of my key races in 2018 I tried not to worry but it was hard not to. Debbie had requested our race plans 10 days before but I kept holding off. I had a hunch I could get close to 8 hours, but that would mean going 30 minutes faster than I had before. My real target was a medal, a gold one if I could, and I didn’t want to blow that by chasing an unachievable time. So the race plan was to stay in the pack - if there was a suitable one - for the first 50km or so, then…  The weekend before I ran 20km by feel in full kit (including the hair tie!) around the Meadows in Edinburgh (a near-identical length lap to Perth and with the same headwind down one side).