When you've run up 60,000 steps on the Great Wall of China, from Los Angeles to New York in 64 days and across 100 kilometres of Arctic tundra, the Bank of Butterield 10K must seem like little more than a quiet stroll to the shops.

But try telling that to German runner-come-journalist Stefan Schlett who will warm up with the shorter distance this morning before turning his attention to tomorrow's marathon.

Schlett, 37, is among the growing number of "ultra'' athletes who specialise in anything above marathon distance -- the 50Ks, the 100-milers, the 24-hour events and six-day non-stop competitions -- or more.

The more sedentary among us may see such entrants as close to certifiable, but Schlett, originally from a small town 15 miles south of Frankfurt, has a different motivation.

"You get to travel a lot and meet a lot of interesting people,'' he says.

"It's an interesting lifestyle where there is always something different happening.

"As a competitor it's a personal challenge to compete in all these different types of races -- one moment you're running across desert and the next up the Great Wall of China thinking what good condition it's in.'' Schlett, who has begun combining competition with freelance writing for a number of running and triathlon magazines, adds: "I have what I term a low lifestyle: I'm not married, I don't drive and I live with my parents. I have one sponsor which enables me to effectively be a professional.'' Schlett is unlikely to trouble the statisticians in either of this weekend's events, however. He has personal bests of 33:38 in the 10K and 2:44.03 in the marathon.

But, again, he has an individual outlook.

"The first thing is to survive,'' he says. "Then comes place and time.'' The English pair of David Lewis and Paul Freary may have slightly different priorities.

Lewis, who has won 24 of his last 28 races has a personal best of 28:12 in the 10K, while his time of 29:33 in the 1994 Bermuda 10K propelled him into second place just a second behind Polish winner Michal Bartoszak.

And Freary, winner of three successive half-marathons on the Island, will concentrate on the shorter distance as he looks to celebrate a fifth win in seven visits to Bermuda: he also won the Front Street Mile in 1995.

"That win in the Mile meant the most of any race I'd ever won,'' said the 30-year-old. "But after that my position went down and down and I realised I had lost a bit of speed as I'd got older. In the last couple of years it's taken the edge off for the 10K. I want to be in the best kind of shape for Saturday morning.

"Although it's been nice to win the half-marathon for three years, that's really more of a fun event -- the 10K is the more prestigious. It's a combination of speed and strength, but it's a very good field this year.''