The champion Carcoar wheelchair racer has made a change to his usual approach to the New York Marathon, which will be held in the early hours of Monday Australian time.

Normally, even allowing for his warm-ups like the Chicago Marathon and the fact that the New York race is on the other side of the world, Fearnley does the majority of his tuning up at home, leaving a week before race time.

As he tries to break a drought at the race that stretches back to the last of his four wins in 2009, he’s made an adjustment and by the time they start the race he will have spent a fortnight on American soil.

“It’s the first time I’ve spent an extra week training over here beforehand,” he said. 

“It’s been good and hopefully one of those small things that makes the difference.”

He has an enviable record at the marquee race on the circuit, having won his first four attempts from 2006-09, and has finished third in his only other three starts there. 

As the years go by, however, more and more entrants are proving up to the mark.

Chicago winner Josh George, Ernst Van Dyke, Masazumi Soejimi, David Weir and Marcel Hug are all capable of winning on any given day.

For the first time the 33-year-old will race as a father, and has baby son Harry and wife Sheridan in tow with him in the US.

In addition to his work in the wheelchair purely from a race point of view, he has also managed to spend time helping out race organisers by spending time with children in New York and imparting some wisdom.

A few days out from the marathon, though, the focus will switch as his rivals begin to filter into the city.

“I’ve been here [New York] already and training in Central Park,” he said.

“I actually spent today [Monday] speaking with kids in the Bronx on behalf of the marathon. Now it’s time to ramp up to the race with the majority of the racers arriving.

“It is looking like being another cold and windy day on Sunday, about nine degrees Celsius is the expected maximum – so pretty much Carcoar weather.”

So is the three-time Paralympic gold medallist happy with the new approach?

His answer was simple.

“I’ll be happy with it if the result is good on Sunday, put it that way,” he said.