This coming weekend could be a watershed in the running lives of Kavin Smith, Ricky Sousa and Lynn Patchett.

The trio will compete in the Rock n' Roll Marathon - a half marathon - in Virginia Beach, USA, on Sunday; each with significant personal goals.

Smith is aiming to take his stamina and endurance to a new high by competing in back-to-back races - the Virginia Beach event and then Bermuda's Labour Day Five Miler on Monday - while Sousa will test himself in the Masters' category for the first time and Patchett will be aiming for a personal best.

None has competed in this event before but the course is known to be flat and conducive to fast times. Having trained in sweltering conditions, the Bermudians believe this can work to their advantage.

"Oh, absolutely, the weather will be a factor. We have all trained through Bermuda's treacherous summer and anywhere else you run in the world, there's nothing like running in Bermuda's heat during summer.

"We're looking forward to getting back into some regular weather where the humidity is a lot lower. That should improve our chances of doing good times," said Sousa.

Having turned 40 a few months ago, he fancies his chances of a top-ten finish among the Masters.

"I am in the best shape of my life. I should be up there in the Masters, in the top ten or so. I've run a few half-marathons in the US and I've been coming like 40th out of everyone so I think it's possible to get into the top ten in the Masters."

Sousa, who has been running 60 to 70 miles a week and doing a lot of speed work, hopes to set a new personal best; reducing his best of 1 hr 20 minutes for a half-marathon to around 1 hr 17 minutes.

"It would be interesting if I can get a lifetime best at 40. That would be an accomplishment," he said.

As adventurous as he is, the veteran athlete will not try to match Smith by attempting the US-Bermuda race double. The latter showed a sense of humour as he discussed his decision to fly back after the Virginia Beach race and defend his title here on Monday morning.

"I have no idea what condition I'll be in but I'm going to show up on Monday. I may go out and run a superb time or I might run myself into the ground and be struggling to walk," he said chuckling.

The Island's leading distance runner has not set a particular goal for the overseas event but stated "I am going to run my hardest".

"The only challenge I have given myself is to run well and to the best of my training capacity. It's going to be a quality field and it's just a matter of sitting in the pack and working with people who you know are better than you."

He, too, would relish breaking his personal best which is in the 1:08 range but acknowledged this will be hard as he has not competed internationally for a year.

"I don't know what I'm going in there with. I have done my training but there is still a difference between training and actually racing to see where you are at," noted 35-year-old Smith, who defended his Marathon Derby title this year.

Patchett has also put in the necessary work and "feels ready for the race". This week she is "tapering and taking it easy".

"I've been training hard during the summer whereas I normally let up and take some time off. I've been gearing towards this race and I'd like to run a good steady time and go for a PB. That would be a bonus," said Patchett, whose current personal best is 1:23.06.

She noted there is a big field of quality competitors which makes it difficult to estimate where she will place.

"It's a matter of going for a particular time, sticking to a certain pace and having a game plan. It's a very popular race with elite runners and that's one of the reason we are running it - to see how we fare with some of the top runners," she said.

The Bermudian trio will have an opportunity to assess the course on Friday and Saturday prior to Sunday's race.