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Wow, what an amazing line up for the 2006 FLM. Most of the greatest marathoners ever will be there. Defending champ Martin Lel will take on Olympic champion Baldini, as well as world record holder Paul Tergat (the "old man" of the field) looking for his first FLM, 2004 winner Evans Rutto, the young gun Felix Limo and then you have your true legends Khannouchi and Gebrselassie.

Sammy Korir is about the only "name" missing!

It's hard to pick a likely winner out of that lot, but I like the look of Rutto, who runs well in difficult conditions and is one of only four runners to break 2:06. But Gebrselassie intrigues me - in breaking the half marathon record last month, is he looking for a win and maybe a really fast time? He also won Amsterdam last October in 2:06:20, so maybe something's cooking in the Geb camp. He also needs to atone for last year's FLM no-show.

In some ways, among the super-fast it's almost a last gasp for the older guys - Tergat, Geb and Khannouchi, before caving in to the inevitable overhauling by the new gurus - Rutto, Limo and maybe Lel.

Then again, if conditions aren't perfect, some of the "slower" guys could come through - Baldini, Gharib and maybe even Ramaala who put in such a gutsy effort in Athens and New York last year.

Whatever happens, it should be a bottler.

The women's side of the race, however looks to be inevitably Paula first, daylight second...

Nigel's always been a dark horse. He'll have learnt from his last FLM, not to mention last year's head-to-head with Geb in Almeria. He'll be looking to reverse the result this time around.

He'll be there or thereabouts, I reckon.

andy Wrote:Nigel's always been a dark horse. He'll have learnt from his last FLM, not to mention last year's head-to-head with Geb in Almeria. He'll be looking to reverse the result this time around.

He'll be there or thereabouts, I reckon.

Just checked with my bookmaker - they tend to agree with you, having Nigel at 9-4. Interestingly, they still have Seafront Plodder in there at 200s.

I'm with Andy on this one. Haile bailed in Almería when he heard RC were coming to town - that was weeks before Nigel confimed his absence. Get your dollars down on the Guildford Galloper.

He's now shortened to 2/1 with Ladbrokes.

Based on the 2004 edition of the race, that'll be two bushes visited per litre of grapefruit squash.

The women's race looks intriguing. Paula is at 1-4 on, with suzieq and stillwaddler worth an each-way bet at level 4-1. Tegla Larupe is looking doubtful as an investment at this level. News from the paddock suggests that she took such a fright from one of the British athletes' warm-up routine in Almeria that it cost 10 minutes off her normal pace.

It'll be tough to come back from there... (as indeed she is reported to have commented about Sweder's half-cocked shin).

That's strange. I could have sworn I saw something about Chelsea written somewhere below here last night, and now it's all gone.

I must have been day-dreaming through that post-Houston jet-lag. And now, a moment ago, I imagined someone here explaining how West Ham had won their sixth successive Premiership match whilst I was away. Yeah, right, at least that's all sorted now - I definitely was hallucinating then ...