Lemoncello targets Olympic time in London Marathon

Andrew Lemoncello will bid for an Olympic Games qualifying time in tomorrow's Virgin London Marathon, fortified by the lessons of his first outing over the distance 12 months ago.

The Fifer finished eighth on his debut over 26 miles. No mean effort. However, like so many of the thousands behind him, there was an ugly collision with the dreaded wall.

His coach had warned him of the perils. "He'd said I'd get to Mile 22 and feel like I didn't care any more," Lemoncello recalled. With the finish in sight, it was the time to care the most.

"It's tough," he admitted. "It's windy. You look behind you and there's no-one there. Same in front. You have to grind out a pace. But it's hard when you haven't experienced it before. The loneliness of the long distance runner really became real."

Despite dropping out of his second 26-miler in Japan last December due to a stitch, the Beijing Olympian senses there is more within. He needs to beat 2 hours and 12 minutes to effectively book his place at London 2012, exactly 100 seconds faster than his best, yet a time that will likely be several minutes adrift of Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede and Kenya's Martin Lei, the presumed contenders.

However the Arizona-based Scot has readied his mind and body for the rigours ahead. "Knowing the course this year will help," he added. "I'd not prepared myself for running on my own for so long. So that's something I've focused on for this time, doing 26 mile-runs on my own, keeping concentration the whole time and keeping myself psyched up and feeling good."

Susan Partridge, who finished 17th last year, is Scotland's leading hope in the women's event while David Weir goes for an unprecedented fifth wheelchair victory.

Meanwhile, Jo Pavey will take inspiration from fellow veteran Helen Clitheroe when she makes her marathon debut tomorrow.

Clitheroe won a surprise gold in the 3,000 metres at the European Indoor Championships in Paris last month at the age of 37, the same as Pavey. And while the Devon athlete is realistic enough to know victory may be beyond her this weekend, she sees Clitheroe as the perfect role model as she also targets a marathon place in the 2012 Olympics.

"I was really inspired to see Helen winning the European Indoor championships after years of trying," Pavey said. "She's a good friend and I know how hard she's worked for many years. She's the same age as me and has also run for years and years. To get to this point and run the best performance of her life after all this time gives me a lot of inspiration."