There may be many highs and lows along the road Freya Murray hopes will lead her to the Olympic Games, but the former option factors prominently in her intended route.
Having finished fifth in the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country International Challenge on Saturday, the Scot will depart tomorrow for Kenya and a month of toil and training at high altitude.
Next, there will barely be enough time to do the laundry and empty her inbox at her engineering employers before she flies off once more to Colorado to talk tactics with her coach, Steve Jones. The London marathon in April will be Murray's debut at the distance and who better to guide her through a race which will double as an Olympic qualifier than a past winner of the event?
Taking time away from her career to focus on her athletics goals will be a major plus, admitted the 28-year-old. "I'm really looking forward to Kenya. It's an opportunity to get in a block of solid training. I'll come back here for a few weeks and then I'm going to Boulder in March. I'm hoping those two spells of concentrated training will really bring me on and be ready for the marathon."
As season openers go, Murray was satisfied with her efforts in Holyrood Park. Ireland's European champion, Fionnuala Britton, the eventual victor of the women's six kilometre event, broke away with Great Britain's Gemma Steel. The pack, which also included Steph Twell, was left to fight among themselves.
"They got a bit of a gap on the second lap," Murray reflected. "I maybe should have tried to stick with them a little longer. I was trying to hold on for third, but fifth isn't too bad."
Twell, also Kenya-bound, finished a disappointing ninth. On her return from Africa, she now plans to compete indoor in Dusseldorf and Stockholm to hone herself over 1500 metres. "It will be the first time I've done it. It's a challenge," she said. "I'd like to get the Olympic qualifying time done, but I won't put pressure on myself."
Spain's Ayad Lamdassem, representing Europe, took the senior men's 9km with Kilbarchan's Derek Hawkins 18th overall. Although only promising junior Emilia Gorecka took victory in an individual event, Great Britain's strength in depth allowed Twell the consolation of lifting the team trophy as the USA and Europe were seen off in the points standings.
If that was no real surprise, then the obliteration of Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele in the elite 3km event turned heads. It has been 11 years since the seemingly omnipotent three-time Olympic champion failed to finish in the top 10 of any race. Here he languished a place outside.
Mo Farah, his rival over both 5000m and 10000m this summer, will wonder if his presumed greatest challenger is on the decline. Bekele was nowhere to be seen as Kenya's Asbel Kiprop cruised clear.
"I must put the race behind me and look towards the rest of the year," said Bekele. "I wanted to run well, but there was nothing there from the very beginning."
British teenager Jonny Hay was second in an impressive senior debut, pipping Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge on the line. "When I came off the final downhill into the home straight I was getting faster and faster," he said. " I thought, 'I've just got to go for it now'."
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