Freya Ross knows she's nowhere near the level of fitness which earned her a place on the Great Britain team for the London Olympic Games 12 years ago, but the Larbert athlete, who celebrated her 41st birthday earlier in the month, still hopes to be competitive when she takes part in Baxters Loch Ness Marathon on Sunday (29 September).

In 2012 Ross recorded 2:28:10 in the London Marathon, a performance which remains the fourth fastest of all-time by a Scottish woman. However, she hasn't run this distance for eight years, her last outing being at Chicago in 2016 when she clocked 2:37:52.

She said: "Since starting a family, I've been gradually working back into doing more running and I got to the point where I needed something to aim for, so a friend at work mentioned the Loch Ness Marathon. I've heard a lot of good things about it and everyone said there's a great atmosphere and the course is attractive, so I decided to go for it.

"I'll certainly be racing it, I'm not there to jog round. But I deliberately haven't thought about any specific time I might do, I just want to enjoy it.  I'm not as totally dedicated to running as I used to be. My life used to revolve around it when I was competing at a high level, but now it's very different. Running has to fit around family."

The 2023 women's race champion Melissah Gibson will make a late decision over whether or not to compete. The Ealing Eagles club member was an impressive winner 12 months ago when clocking 2:43:45, which is the third quickest women's time in the history of the race. But injuries and work commitments have hampered her preparations for the defence of her title.

Musselburgh's Moray Pryde will renew his rivalry with Manchester's Tom Charles in what has the potential to be another enthralling battle for supremacy in the men's race. 12 months ago Charles seemed to be heading for victory as he led through the 20 mile mark before Pryde surged past to claim a dramatic victory in 2:22:04, knocking more than nine minutes off his previous best time in the process.

Pryde said: "Last year's win was a real breakthrough for me. I didn't expect it in the slightest. My previous best time was 2:31, so I absolutely never believed I could get 2:22. My preparations this time have gone pretty well, although you always feel you might have done more. But, I'm definitely more consistent now and my mileage is higher than before."

Charles, who has a best time of 2:21:59 from 2021, hopes he can work with Pryde for as long as possible into the race in a bid to give both men a decent chance of challenging the course record of 2:20:13 set by Kenya's Simon Tonui in 2009.

If you'd like to know more, visit the Loch Ness Marathon website.

Image: Loch Ness Marathon