“It’s all about blowing out the cobwebs and getting back into the long races.”

Carcoar wheelchair ace Kurt Fearnley will return to his pet distance tomorrow as he lines up for the Sydney Marathon before his annual venture to the United States.

Fearnley has a brilliant record at the Sydney race and admits that even he has lost count of how many editions he has won since a breakthrough victory in 2000.

Since the race adopted it’s current course in 2006, he has won seven of the eight contested. After a year to date with an unusually intense focus on track racing, he is looking forward to getting back to what he knows best.

“We start with Sydney this weekend, then head to Chicago on the second weekend of October, and then I’m off to New York for the first weekend of November for the big one,” he said.

“It is a great chance for me this weekend just to have a good push over the distance and see how I’m going.

“I have been doing a lot of rolling lately, but this is really the start of my preparation for Chicago and New York.”

Fearnley’s goal at the start of the year was to claim a gold medal in the 1500 metre race on the track at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

He was defeated by arch-rival David Weir in the final and forced to settle for silver and he admits that the focus on what is for him, effectively a sprint race, was unusual.

“It is so rare for me to do what I did, I’ve never focused on a race like that for such a long part of the year,” he said.

“We also had [baby son] Harry at the start of the year and with all of that, I’ve done no marathons at all.

“I’m not sure what the effects are going to be, but I guess I’ll find out this weekend when I get to the last 10 kilometres. When you train for a 1500 metres race for that long it has to have an impact I think.”

Though it is unlikely to see many of Fearnley’s major international rivals on show, the Sydney race still holds a special place in his heart given his origins at the elite level of the sport.

“In 2000 I won it for the first time, it was called the Host City Marathon back then because of the Olympics and I was actually able to beat Saul Mendoza,” he explained.

“He was the superstar at that stage and it was the first time I’d not only beaten him, but really the first time I’d been in the same ball-park. 

“I’ve won eight or nine in total now I think, but I’m not sure.

“There will be a few of the usual suspects there on Sunday, Richard Coleman and Richard Nicholson are both racing, so that will keep it interesting.”