Be sure to wear flowers in your hair, there will be a love-in there and all that. Well there’s no love-in and I haven’t got flowers in my hair but I’m here and ready to race!

After a thought-provoking 11hr flight, some serious acclimatisation in the form of an 11 hour sleep, a breakfast meeting, a few full dishes of pasta, a sports massage and another big sleep, I’m raring to go for today’s race. I’ll be running the half marathon at 3.30pm UK time which is 7.30am here.

The aim is to run around about PB pace which would see me finish in around 74′ – about 3’30/km pace.  I would quite like to finish closer to 73′ but that will be a big ask on a hilly San Fran course.  The trick will be as always to see what’s going on around me and try to stick with a group that’s going equal or faster than my target pace. The first half of the course is a steady incline and the second half descends to sea level so I’m hoping that the hard work at the start will rewarded by an easier finish. And as I’m fairly light, I am quite capable of ghosting up the hills.

I want to be running in under 73′ at the Maidenhead Half at the beginning of September, so the closer I can get to that target today, the better. It will be interesting to see how I fare after a more American preparation of Gatorade, homemade bagels and some dodgy looking caffeine tablets. These may be the ingredients for success that I’ve been looking for!