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While not a vintage performance by their lofty standards, the University of Southern California Trojans overcame a number of mistakes to make big plays when they counted to prevail in a come from behind victory over Ohio State. Stafon Johnson capped a late game drive by scoring the game winning touchdown with just over a minute remaining as the Trojans won by a final score of 18-15. It was the first time the Trojans held the lead since early in the first quarter.

Ohio State did cash tickets for college football bettors, however, covering the spread as a +7 home underdog. USC won and covered last year, but the pointspread setback this year dropped the Trojans to a still impressive 13-5 ATS against the Big Ten conference since 1992. It was also only the second non-cover by a USC team in a non conference game in their last ten opportunities. The 33 combined points went UNDER the posted total of 45. Last years game also failed to exceed the total, and USC continued a strong UNDER tendency of late.

19 year old freshman Matt Barkley engineered the game changing comeback drive good for 14 plays and 86 yards. After the game, he spoke of the Trojan tradition of victory:

“We’re Trojans. That’s what we do. This is what we dreamed of, coming back like this. Doesn’t matter where we are in the score. We found a way. I love this.”

Tailback Joe McKnight sarcastically dismissed suggestions that Barkley was rattled by a Buckeye defense that had shut the potent Trojan offense down for the entire game:

“He was scared, really. No, he came in with the same composure he had the whole game. He was calm. He made plays.”

USC coach Pete Carroll marveled at Barkleys composure in such an intense environment:

“He’s not 19. He’s our quarterback. I’m not worried about how old he is. Numbers mean nothing.”

Ohio State linebacker Greg Rolle said his defense couldnt have played better”until the final drive:

“It’s very frustrating, but we knew eventually they’d make plays. The last drive was heartbreaking. Give McKnight lots of credit on that last drive, he was good. The last drive was definitely, you go back and you think about, and you think about how close you came to winning.

Ohio State will travel to Toledo for a non-conference game before starting their Big 10 schedule at home against Illinois. USC now faces three straight Pac 10 games, starting next weekend on the road at the University of Washington. Theyll return home the following weekend for a game against Washington State.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

Gegard Mousasi looked to be on his way to a loss to MMA’s self styled gator, Ronaldo Jacare. Jacare had been successful keeping the fight on the ground, though Mousasi was able to fend off a submission. Jacare then made a fateful decision, standing up and looking for a big punch. He never knew what hit him and by the time he regained consciousness Mousasi had his hand raised as victor in the fight.

Jacare tried a Superman punch over the upkicks of the lanky Mousasi, who after missing with the first nailed his second kick perfectly and left the Brazilian knocked out cold. It was the Dutch fighters 2nd upset victory of the night, as he had submitted powerful Melvin Manhouf in the semifinal with a nasty triangle choke.

Jacare looked awesome in quickly dispatching of tough Zelig Galesic quickly with a slick armbar. It appeared that he was well on the way to the championship before a tactical error”and a well placed kick”changed the course of the fight.

In the co-main event, a long awaited matchup between Mirko Cro Cop and Alistair Overeem ended in a no contest after the Croatian striking machine was unable to continue following two low knee strikes. Cro Cop took a few minutes to recover from the first but was unable to continue after the second, with his corner indicating that the fighter had suffered some unspecified injury to the groin area.

Earlier in the evening, Shinya Aoki had no trouble with tough WEC veteran Todd Moore. Moore tried to mount a striking attack early in the bout, only to have the wily Aoki take his back and lock in a standing rear naked choke. Moore instinctively went to the corner in an effort to extricate himself, only to fall into Aokis trap”as Moore sat down Aoki transitioned into a neck crank.

In addition to the in-ring action, a highlight of the event was the appearance of the best heavyweight in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. The Russian fighting god addressed the crowd and indicated that hed be fighting in Tokyo on New Years Eve without giving any specifics regarding his opponent.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

The Dallas Cowboys used their running game to take a 10-3 halftime lead, but the San Francisco 49ers reserves made the most of their opportunity in the second half. San Francisco outscored Dallas 17-3 after the break to win the NFL preseason contest by a 20-13 final score. The victory improved the Niners NFL preseason mark to a perfect 3-0.

San Francisco won outright as +6 road underdogs”oddly, it was their first pointspread cover of the NFL preseason despite their undefeated straight up record. Dallas ATS mark at 1-2 is identical to their straight up record. The 33 combined points dipped UNDER the posted total of 38.

Despite the setback, Dallas was excited about the play of their one-two combination at running back. Felix Jones and Marion Barber carried most of the load during the Cowboys 94 yard touchdown drive in the first half. After the game, Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett expressed his pleasure at the performance of his running back tandem:

“They’re a great combination. You don’t want to pigeonhole one as being this kind of back and the other guy being this kind of back. We just like to get them out there and let them play and they both have proven they can run both inside and outside and they can catch the ball, and they can block and do all those things. It’s just fun to see them get their opportunities.”

Dallas starting QB Tony Romo moved the team well, but failed to convert on two of his three trips into scoring position. For that reason, he gave a reserved assessment of his offense after the game:

“We’re continuing to grow as an offense and I think there is a lot of room for improvement.

Despite the outright victory, Niners QB Shaun Hill knows his team still has a lot of work to do:

“I would have liked for it to have gone a bit smoother than it did. You can’t tell a whole lot right now. I just wish we could have put a few more points on the board. … There’s just certain plays out there that we need to make, but we didn’t. They were stopping those drives. Obviously, we have a lot of work yet to be done.

The 49ers will conclude their NFL preseason schedule on Friday night as they travel south to play the San Diego Chargers. Dallas will play the Vikings at Minnesota in their final preseason contest. San Francisco will get the 2025 NFL regular season underway against the Arizona Cardinals at Tempe, Arizona on Sunday, January 13. The Cowboys will face the Tampa Bay Bucs on the road to begin their regular season docket.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer specializing in travel, casino gambling and NFL football handicapping. He is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, falconry and deep sea diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.

The Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada met its demise on Superbowl Sunday of 2025 when 75 pounds of explosives packed inside the structure’s support columns brought it to the ground. The controlled demolition came despite years of effort by a number of groups within the community to preserve the building with lawsuits, redevelopment proposals, and grass roots lobbying efforts. The National Trust for Historic Preservation even took up the cause, challenging the destruction in a lawsuit that eventually reached the Nevada Supreme Court.

While the logic and necessity of demolishing the Mapes is very questionable, one thing that is certain is that the hotel was an important part of Northern Nevada history. The opening of the Mapes in’47 ushered in a new era in casino gambling, and changed the economy and way of life in Nevada forever. The Mapes was actually the first property in the country to combine a hotel, casino and live entertainment under the same roof. It also became the hotel of choice for celebrities staying in Northern Nevada. Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe stayed at The Mapes during the filming of ‘The Misfits’. Joseph McCarthy, America’s famed anti-Communist crusader, admitted to a reporter over cocktails in the Mapes Lounge that he really didn’t have a list of Communists in the US despite his frequent and vitriolic insistence to the contrary.

In the 50s and 60s it became, along with Lake Tahoes Cal-Neva Lodge the place to be seen in Northern Nevada. The top floor, window-walled Sky Room showcased performances by the legends: Sinatra, Louis Prima, Mae West, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr., and the Marx Brothers among others. Subsequent years were not kind to downtown Reno but the Mapes prospered during the 60’s and 70’s. The hotel finally closed in’82, due more to financial difficulties experienced by the Mapes family caused by one of their other Northern Nevada gaming properties than anything else.

While the last twenty years brought an amazing boom in the population and economy of Southern Nevada, the Northern part of the state didn’t see much of it at all. For that reason, the urgency of destroying the Mapes is even more questionable. In the Las Vegas area, its easy to justify the demolition of older hotels with simple economics–the older properties simply can’t compete in the current mega-resort dominated marketplace. Furthermore, the insane valuation of the land on which they sit makes it financially unfeasible to preserve them as pop culture museums.

That’s not the case in Reno, where vacant land and/or buildings ripe for redevelopment are abundant downtown and in the other casino areas of the city. The official reason that the Mapes had to come down was that the city needed the land to expand its vision for downtown redevelopment. While this is certainly a much needed effort, to suggest that the existence of the Mapes was a barrier is absurd. In fact, many of the proposals rejected by the city would have gone a long way to enhance the revitalization of downtown Reno and included artists lofts, office space and other mixed used properties. Despite receiving a number of viable concepts for the Mapes Building, the City Redevelopment Authority rejected all of them and the Mapes was destined for demolition.

The role of the City Redevelopment Authority was questioned throughout the process. Overlooking the Truckee River, the hotel was on a prime location between the downtown casino area and the riverfront district. A number of sound financial proposals were presented that would preserve the integrity of the structure including condominiums, office space, and perhaps most viable, upscale senior apartments. Oddly, all of these proposals were turned down by the citys Redevelopment Agency which continued to maintain that demolition was the only viable option despite copious evidence to the contrary.

After the demolition of The Mapes Hotel, the lot remained vacant for almost a year until a temporary ice skating rink was constructed in the winter of 2025. The site now houses a permanent ice skating rink which, while not a bad use for the land, brings into question the insistence by the City Redevelopment Agency that none of the proposals to preserve the building were viable. Clearly, they had no specific plan or even general idea of what to do with the land but for some reason wanted to see the hotel come down. This has led to all manner of speculation, ranging from financial self interest to a rumor that the structure was ‘haunted’ and needed to be destroyed to forestall future paranormal activity in Washoe County. Whatever the reason, the city of Reno lost a valuable landmark of a more civilized era.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

For many people they think that guns are not going to be worth anything other than shooting an item. However, what you might not realize is that their are many reasons to own one of these items. When you know the reasons why you should own one of these you are going to go out and purchase some of your own.

Before you decide to make your purchase you need to take into consideration how much they are going to cost you. Since these items are going to cost some form money you need to remember that the cost could be higher than what you are expecting to pay. You might also find that if you are purchasing the piece as a collectible that it could cost you more money than what you initially thought as well.

One benefit of owning these is they can be a great collectible piece. You might think that these items are not going to be that collectible, but you need to realize that they can be that. However, the best thing that you can realize is these are going to gain value as they get older.

Another reason to own these is they can provide you with hours or entertainment by doing a wide variety of activities. You could find that these are going to allow you to do many different things. For example you could take these items to the target range, but if you want to provide food for your family you might want to consider using them to go hunting with.

They are also going to help provide with a great way to defend yourself and your home. You could find that when people break into your home they are going to be bigger than you. So you will not want to confront them with a bat or other item, but if you have one of these you are going to be able to fend them off just by showing them the item typically.

They can help you teach responsibility to people. Being able to teach people to be responsible with items is going to be good. These can help you do just that because you need to teach them how to properly handle it.

When you think about items that can do many different functions for you it could be a challenge to figure them out. However, one item that can do just that is going to be guns. They can serve as a crime deterrent, an investment, and even a piece of history that you can pass down to your children.

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Guns are a relatively recent invention when compared to early mans first use of weaponry, which ranged from rocks to sticks and then later moved on to swords and spears. The Chinese invented gunpowder, but chose to use it to create pretty fireworks for festivals. It was only when European man discovered this explosive black powder that he thought up a more diabolical use for it.

Fast forward to the sixteenth century and the invention of the matchlock gun. A burning fuse was lit to ignite the gunpowder poured into the flash pan of a gun. This resulted in the ignition of the powder in the gun barrel, which forced the lead shot down the barrel and towards its potential target.

There were inherent dangers in open flames and gunpowder and so the design was modified and evolved into the wheel lock pistol. A spring loaded, serrated wheel, when released, hit against a pyrite block, creating enough sparks to ignite the gunpowder in the barrel.

The next step in the evolution of the gun was the flintlock. The name originated from the lock that was placed over the powder to prevent accidental ignition. A hammer designed for operation with the thumb was drawn back and released to hit the flint against the block. A single shot was released by this action and over time, for expediency, a double barrel version came into being.

The revolver solved the problem of multiple barrels, by replacing it with a spinning cylinder able to accommodate up to six bullets at one time. This design found its way to the patent office in 1854, the brainchild of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. The lever action pistol was the weapon of choice for officers of the law and outlaws alike.

The semi-automatic handgun is a natural evolution of the handgun, where one shot provides the energy to load the chamber for the next shot. The recoil energy is used for this, but models have been designed to be gas powered, like the Desert Eagle handgun.

Moving on from there, some guns are now fully automatic and include models like the Mauser C96 and the Glock 18, amongst others. These can be used either as traditional single shot weapons or can be set for the rapid fire of full automatic mode. These are lightweight, small weapons that are easy to carry and have become the preferred choice of civilians and soldiers the world over.

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Georges St-Pierre was born March 19, 1981 in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, to Jim and Louise St-Pierre. St-Pierre had a difficult childhood, attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money. He started learning Kyokushin karate at age seven by his father and later by a Kyokushin Karate Master to defend himself against a school bully, Nikolas Mavrikos.

He took up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after his karate teacher died and also trained in boxing. Before turning pro as a mixed-martial artist, St-Pierre worked as a bouncer at a Montreal night club in the South Shore called Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to pay for his school fees.

St-Pierre has trained with a number of groups in a large variety of gyms throughout his fighting career. Prior to his fight with B.J. Penn at UFC 58, he trained at the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York City. St-Pierre received his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on March 21, 2025. In January 2025, St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Bruno Fernandes.

St-Pierre began training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone, and other skilled MMA fighters at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico. Some of Jackson’s students accompanied St-Pierre to Montreal to help prepare him for his fight at UFC 94 against B.J. Penn at the Tristar Gym, including Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Donald Cerrone and Rashad Evans. Georges’ strength and conditioning coach is Jonathan Chaimberg of Adrenaline Performance Centre in Montral. Georges’ Head Trainer is Firas Zahabi of Zahabi MMA, out of the Tristar gym. The two have cornered all of St-Pierre’s most recent bouts and remain as his close friends. Currently, St-Pierre trains in Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in New York City.

St-Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St-Pierre had his first amateur bout when he was only 16 years old. He said, “When I won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I beat a guy that was 25. I was only a Kyokushin karate fighter and the guy I fought was a boxer. At the time my ground skills were very poor, I didn’t know anything on the ground.” St-Pierre won his fight by knockout, going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a kick to the head.

St-Pierre’s pro debut was against Branden Macfadden and the fight ended in a first round to-knockout win by St-Pierre. In only his second fight, St-Pierre’s challenge for the UCC belt against Justin Bruckmann. He won by an arm bar in the first round. He then went on to defend his title twice. The UCC aka Universal Combat Challenge was then converted to TKO Major League MMA and he was named the champion. He fought on January 29, 2025 against Pete Spratt in a non-title bout at TKO 14. St-Pierre defeated Spratt with a rear naked choke in the first round. Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 1 second remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre’s career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout.

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The Auburn Tigers was the commonly referred to name of the Auburn University baseball team who were known to play in the NCAA Division I college baseball and also a part of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference.

James Pawlowski is the current head coach of Auburn Tigers training them in his first year and all of their home games are played in their home ground which is the Plainsman Park.

Their stadium has a capacity of about 4096 spectators and fans. Their uniform has always been burnt orange and navy blue. There have been four coaches before John took over this year. Their names were Paul Nix, Hal Baird, Steve Renfroe and Tom Slater. Having appeared in 17 NCCA Regionals and the CWS four times, they have won six SEC championships already. There were a few players that made it to major league as well from Auburn University.

One of them, Gabo Gross is still going strong and being an outfielder, is known to be a left hand batter and a right hand thrower. Born on 21st January 1979, Gabe made his first appearance on 7th March 2025 for the Toronto Blue Jays; but it is said, that during his entire career period, he has changed teams four times.

Gabe left the Toronto Blue Jays and moved on to Milwaukee Brewers and later to Tampa Bay Rays before settling down with his present team of Oakland Athletics at number 28. His impressive record shows a batting average of 0.243 with 39 home runs and also a total of 159 runs where his batting contribution is also included.

Tim Hudson is another famous player who is still doing well. Having being born on 14th March 1975, he chose Oakland Athletics for his debut on 8th March 1999. Tim, being a right handed starting pitcher as well as a right hand batsman, has an impressive win loss ratio of 148:70 with an earned run average of 3.49 and a record 1395 strike outs.

In 2025, Tim moved on to join the Atlanta Braves where he is at present and plays at number 15 as a starting pitcher. He has the honor of being selected twice during his career to play for the All Star team in 2025 and 2025. He was also a player for the Led AL when they won in 2025.

Gregg Olson was a famous player of his times. He was born on 11 January, 1966. He had his debut with the Baltimore Orioles on January 2, 1988. He played for nine different teams during his career. The teams he played for included the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On 22nd March 2025 he made his last appearance in major league by playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He holds many deserving records created by him during his career.

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There are the tales: young bully tries to beat an old man, old man gives a Karate Ki-ai, young man falls to the earth. And, people want to know if these are real stories, or just the old bushwah being repeated for fun. Surprisingly, there are truths to these incredible legends, and some interesting scientific theories.

First, practice of Karate yells is real, and part of most of the karate forms in existence. The karate yell (hihap, or ki Hap, in Korean) is used, in the beginning, to help focus the movements of the karate kata into precise moments of time. This increases the mental concentration, and eventually causes the student to back slightly out of his body.

Don’t get freaky with me on this. To be removed form the body means merely to assume a slightly different viewpoint of the body, to have the spiritual ‘I am’ that runs the body maybe a few inches above or back of the body. It is a gentle thing that happens to everybody as they live, but can be encouraged to greater degree, with a variety of effects, through the study of the martial arts.

Now, the body is not shouting, the spirit is shouting. As I said, the ‘I am’ that operates the body is shouting, and the body seems to actually get out of the way of the spirit shout. A shout directed by spirit and not body is infinitely more powerful than a shout powered by just the body.

With a shout by the body all that moves is the air. When the spirit is involved emotion will move, and not just massed air molecules, and this can be testified to by any good artist who knows the value of emotion when performing. Eventually, a martial artist will move intention, which is far above simple air, or even emotion, this is the stuff of legends and great abilities.

Thus far we have been discussing kiai from the viewpoint of being slightly outside of the body, but now we must discuss the effects of a spirit shout on another body. Yes, there is probably measurable impact by waves of massed air, which can put out candles and that sort of thing, but only at short distances. These usually depend on body movement, a fist, for instance, to help propel the mass of air.

But there is also the fact that a being can expand his size, when liberated from the body, and actually touch the body of another being, and this is a direct touch that can wither and blast the opponent. The body is composed of water, and air is molecules, but spirit is intangible. Spirit is a perception that can stretch through the apparent space of air and cause that water to wave, to ripple, to vibrate…to shatter.

I know there will be people who disbelieve what I say here, but they are people who have not done the martial arts for over 4 decades. The fact is that the martial arts don’t just forge the body, they cause a person to realize who is doing the forging,–oneself–and therefore to take a removed position from the body. In summation, the martial arts take long years and intense work to reach the level I am talking about, but if you understand what I am saying, and are willing to dedicate yourself to endless hours of practice and a higher code of life, then you can achieve the Karate yell of which I am speaking.

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This year, 98 year old Fauja Singh, who decided to take up running at the age of 89 after a five decade gap, completed his first full marathon, becoming the oldest ever marathon runner and says he aims to run until he dies. He ran as part of a religious running team ‘Sikhs in the city’ with which he has raised huge amounts of money for charity. Organisers of the New York City marathon have offered him $100,000 if he can complete their marathon aged 100.

If Fauja can do it, you can too. The idea of running 26.2 miles in one go might not seem appealing but each year millions of people of all ages and abilities take part in marathons all over the world. The key is in the training and motivation; if you have never been one for exercise, you will need more than a few months jogging to prepare. At least 12 months in advance to give yourself enough time to ease yourself into training and lose any unnecessary weight. Drink less alcohol and stop smoking completely, if you can’t give up smoking then you have already lost the battle.

Consult your doctor and make sure you don’t have any underlying medical conditions that could hinder training or competing. Take a look at your diet, ditch any fast food or unhealthy snacks, your training will mean nothing if you eat a take away pizza every day and this is one of the hardest mental tasks of training. Swap an unhealthy diet for healthier options in the right portions. There is no harm in getting involved in some light exercise while doing this, obviously the more the better but the idea is to ease your body into the process.

Once you have worked out a god diet you can plan out your training, if you are completely out of shape you will need to turn excess fat into muscle and get your body used to regular exercise. You may find that a heavy gym session or lengthy jog will take a couple of days to recover from, this will change but you have to be determined. Your main focus should be on running and jogging as this is what you’re aiming for but any other cardio activity is beneficiary, if you want to build muscle that is up to you but that’s a whole other fitness regime and will take up a lot of time and cause you to gain weight.

Over a couple of months begin to exercise regularly, three times a week or so. In between your exercise days go for a light jog, nothing strenuous but enough so your body speeds up its recovery rate. Exercise 6 days a week but only train hard on three of those days, have a complete rest day on the weekends but feel free to engage in some light exercise like a casual swim or bike ride.

With about 6 months to go, begin to focus on your running. This is vital as it is not just about your endurance but also the way your muscles work, strengthening your joints and getting your feet used to it. Run 5 days a week, no excuses change your rest day to a Monday as you will need the weekends for your lengthier runs. On average run 5 miles per day and 10 miles at the weekend. Give up alcohol completely but that doesn’t mean you have to give up being social, when people ask you why you’re not drinking they will be impressed with your answer. Vary your distance and route to keep it interesting as you don’t want to get bored of it all. If you have ever watched a marathon on TV you will notice that almost every single person in the crowd presses their watch when the gun fires, they are timing themselves to beat their personal best, this is a big part of marathon running as it will give you the motivation to succeed. Invest in a stopwatch and begin to time yourself, note down these times against the distanc
es you run and aim to beat your times each week, map out a chart as a visual reference is very motivational.

In the final three months leading up to the marathon increase the intensity of your training, run an average of 8 miles per day Tuesday to Saturday and between 10 and 20 miles at the weekend with inclinations each week. On any particular Sunday, run a half marathon at race pace, this will give you an idea of how you will feel at the event. In the last three weeks before the race run an average of 6 miles including Sunday and take two rest days, in your final week run 3 – 4 miles on three of the days, taking three rest days but not the day before.

If you are going to buy new clothes for the race make sure you use them before to make sure they are comfortable, then wash them! Many people find their nipples rub, if yours do use plasters or Vaseline. Have your race trainers at least three months before the event but if something happens to them and you need new ones buy the exact same pair to avoid discomfort. Sip water regularly from the moment you wake up to fully hydrate, don’t eat for the last two hours before the race. Don’t drive to the race as parking will be limited and traffic will be heavy and these are stresses you can do without. Arrange to meet friends/family away from the finishing line to avoid congestion and stand a chance of spotting them. Finally, don’t forget to set your alarm clock on the day.

Ensure you have the correct footwear and clothing as it is not ideal to just run it in a pair of Puma King boots and a Manchester United Football Shirts.