Scottish marathoner looking forward to top-level competition at World Half Marathon Championships this weekend

Susan Partridge takes to the streets of Copenhagen for the World Half Marathon Championships on Saturday and although not setting a specific target she’s determined to go quicker than the 73:55 she ran for 22nd at this event in Bulgaria in 2012.

Having undergone treatment for a long-term Achilles problem following the Bupa Great South Run in October, the Scot is keen to use her outing in the Danish capital as a way of maintaining the momentum following her 10th place finish in the World Championships marathon in Moscow last August.

“I ran the World Half in Bulgaria about 18 months ago and finished 22nd,” said Partridge. “It was not exactly a terrible run but I came away a little disappointed.

“I ran 71 minutes in Cardiff the following week which confirmed to me that I could have done that little bit better,” added the 34-year-old, who ran her half marathon PB of 70:31 in Bath last year before setting her marathon best of 2:30:46 in London the following month. “So it was a bit of blip in a sense and I’d love Copenhagen to be faster than that day in Bulgaria.”

Having only been back in full training since the beginning of the year, Partridge admits it has been a race against time to make the championships this weekend, where she will be joined by fellow GB athletes Alyson Dixon and Ben Moreau. Rory Fraser had also been due to compete but was forced to withdraw through injury.

“I’d a long-term Achilles problem and I decided to get it sorted out between the Great South Run and Christmas,” explained Partridge. “It was a bit of a race against time, therefore, to do the World Half and at one stage I was scheduled to do altitude training in Boulder at this point in the year. I’ve now pushed that back into June.

“I’ve used a couple of races recently to get fit a bit quicker and hopefully it has worked,” added Partridge, who won the Reading Half Marathon – trial race for the championships – in early March, clocking 72:18, and also ran 74:52 two weeks later in Lisbon.

“I may do some 10km races in May and see how they go and maybe cut my PB if possible, but the main focus is still the marathon at Glasgow 2014 and Copenhagen should help me towards that.”

Already selected by Team Scotland for the Commonwealths, Partridge last year told AW how her 10th place in Moscow last summer caused her to reconsider her target ahead of the home Games.

“My target was that I wanted to be on the podium in Glasgow, so to then be tenth in the world and the second Commonwealth athlete in Moscow, it’s a reassurance that I have a realistic target for the Games and that maybe my target should be to win, not just to podium,” she said at the time.

But for now her focus in on Copenhagen and performing well as part of a top-class field.

“After Moscow last summer it was a full year through to Glasgow so this is a nice chance to represent GB again and compete against top class international athletes,” she said.

“It is important to have targets. I wanted some focus for 2014 before Glasgow so this has become that in my competition plan.”

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