JAMES Donald has high hopes that he can carve a big chunk off his personal best in the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday, writes KEVIN FAHEY.

Donald, who works at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in Swindon, is understandably upbeat about his chances after an encouraging build-up.

In the Bath half marathon last month he ran almost two minutes quicker than ever before with a time of 74mins 34secs so that suggests his lifetime best of 2hrs 48mins 50secs, which he ran in London last year, is under serious threat.

“Even though a lot of people at my club (Team Bath AC) say I should be aiming to go faster I am going to ignore them and stick with my target of 2hrs 45mins,” said Donald.

“I am certainly in much better shape than last year when I ran London really stupidly. I ran with a team-mate as long as possible but he was much quicker and after he dropped me it was a painful finish.

“I still ran a PB last year but it was hard so this time I am going to try and pace myself better and be more sensible.”

On the basis of his performance in the Bath half the 31-year-old could, in theory be capable of getting close to 2hrs 40mins which would put him among the top finishers in Wiltshire.

Donald is certainly strong enough as his main sport in the triathlon and he is in heavy training for his major target of the year in the summer.

“I have entered the Ironman in Nice in June which is a 3.8k sea swim followed by 180k on the bike and then the marathon,” added Donald.

“That is my main aim of the summer but I am looking forward to London first to see what I can do.”

Meanwhile, Nathan Montague has been given the all-clear by the England team management to head to Scotland this weekend to join the elite field for one of the most prestigious ultra races on the calendar.

The 34-year-old Swindon Harrier from The Parks had been on standby as first reserve for the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100k road race next month but with no drop outs he has been told to catch Friday’s fight from Bristol to Glasgow and prepare for the Highland Fling.

“The England call-up has been at the back of my mind but I haven’t had the call so I’ll be running the Highland Fling on Saturday,” said Montague.

“There is a strong elite field for the event with a couple of Americans coming over to run it as well so I am really looking forward to it.”

The point-to-point race starts at 6am on Saturday in Milngavie, on the outskirts of Glasgow and covers the 53 miles on the West Highland Way including several mountain passes and tough climbs and descents before finishing in the pretty Highland village of Tyndrum.

The winner normally takes between seven-and-a-half to eight hours and the race has attracted a sell-out entry of 1,000 runners for is 10th anniversary.

Montague has a big year ahead with the main target being the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) at the end of August which is one of the biggest ultra races in the world and attracts the best runners.

Then after that he has secured sponsorship to take part in a stage race across the Kalahari Desert in South Africa with the goal of becoming the first UK runner to win the event.