Having shrugged off nagging injuries, Larry Marshall is ready to push himself to the limit in this year’s Bermuda Day Half-Marathon Derby.

The 24-year-old St.Augustine College graduate grappled with foot and knee injuries earlier this year, but feels highly confident heading into this week’s road running spectacle with his injury concerns now behind him.

“I’m feeling good and just happy to be healthy again after experiencing some injury issues during the latter part of last year and early part of this year that hampered my training. I had two different injuries which were a bit frustrating,” he said.

As a result of his injuries, Marshall saw limited action during the 2007 domestic schedule.

“I wish I could’ve had a few more races under my belt. But I ran some fairly decent races in the ones that I did compete in and also had some pretty good quality tempo sessions in my training and so I should be okay,” he insisted.

In placing third behind younger brother Lamont last year, Marshall might have offered a glimpse of even better things to come, with many now predicting the two brothers to rewrite history by becoming the first siblings to place first and second since the Virgil twins (Neville and Neil) achieved the remarkable feat in 1964 (see story this page).

Marshall, however, refuses to get caught up in all of the pre-race hype.

“People always try and give you added pressure, but you can’t allow that to bother you. You have to take things with a grain of salt, I guess,” he said.

“You just can’t really let things get to you. You have to try and focus on your own race and not allow all of the May talk — that’s what I call it — to get to you. I think a lot of talk always seems to circulate about what certain people are doing, but truthfully speaking nobody really lets you know what others want to know.

“You always hear this person saying how fast they are going to go out, but they aren’t going to let you know their real strategy. Obviously you have to respect the field, but I also think it’s important not to try and get caught up in what everybody else is trying to achieve.

“You have to learn in racing throughout, period, to relax when you have to because sometimes you can overreact to the situation when you should have a clearer mind. Sometimes you don’t think about things until you are ready to think about them.”

Marshall is now on the verge of making his sixth appearance in the Marathon Derby. And with a some experience now under his belt he hopes this will be his breakthrough year.

“I think experience does come in handy and you can have all the experience in the world. But if you are not in good shape then more than likely you are not going to win,” he said.

“I just want to eat right and get a bit of rest and hopefully on the day I feel good and have a good run. Obviously my personal goal is to win. It won’t matter if I come second or fifth. To me that will be a disappointment and so my ultimate goal will be to try and pull off a victory this year. And hopefully it’ll be a good day for running.

“I actually got sick two weeks before last year’s race, and wasn’t really at full-strength for the race. But this year everything feels good and I just hope I feel good on the day.”