run competitively.

But before anyone gets any funny ideas of him being out there challenging Kavin Smith in the coming months, forget it.

Watson ran in both the 10-k on Saturday and the ADT half-marathon on Sunday, completing the former but pulling out midway through the second race as he turned onto Barker's Hill and made the short detour to his Devonshire home.

For a time, too, he looked like the Mike Watson of old as he kept up with the leaders during the early stages of Sunday's race. It was, he says, all part of his training and that he never saw himself finishing after going out so fast.

"I chose to run hard for four or five miles rather than jog for 15,'' Watson explained last night. "I'm more or less training for long distances (marathon) now.

"I've traditionally been a middle-distance runner but I'm making the adjustment and in the process I'm enjoying myself a bit. I'm not ready to be running at a high level, I'm not in that type of shape.'' Watson ran his last competitive race in September, 1991 when he competed in the Pan Am Games. He will spend the rest of this year settling back into the sport, with 1995 being his long term focus.

"Ninety-four is going to be a fun year for me. Ninety-five is when I'm looking to be very competitive,'' he revealed.

For the last month Watson has had an injury to the arch on his foot, all the more reason not to overdo it too soon.

"I know where my training is and it isn't up to the standard to enable me to be very competitive,'' he says. "I don't want to race until I'm prepared to race.'' Failure to complete Sunday's half-marathon did not bring any great disappointment for Watson who decided not to take up the challenge when Kavin Smith went past him on North Shore.

"I wasn't serious about running the distance from the get-go,'' he insists.

"It was strictly a training run. I'm trying to keep it in perspective. It's easier to run with people than by myself. I had no intention of doing anything spectacular and I wasn't prepare for that.

"Ninety-four is the year to come back, ninety-five to achieve some good performances. I'm giving myself time to get back, I'm not trying to rush right back.

"It's unfair to expect an athlete who has been cooling out to be competitive right away. I'm on the comback but even I know my fitness is not going to be there automatically.'' Watson, who won the May 24 the last time he competed -- 1991 -- has quickly ruled out a return to the popular event. "I don't think so unless something drastic happens over the next three months,'' he says.

"I don't feel the urgency to come back. I'm going about it in a manner where I can enjoy it. Patience is the key in any sport.'' Watson wasn't the only runner of repute not to complete a race on Sunday, as Sandra Mewett, aborted her run in the ADT marathon, though for different reasons.

On Sunday, Bermudians found out that she is human after all. That there is a point of delirium which even she could not pass.

The place was Knapton Hill, approximately 18 miles into the ADT Bermuda Marathon. And Mewett, battered and weary legged, finally could bear no more...the burden had become too great and begrudgingly she withdrew.

Mother Nature had won the battle and Mewett, for once, accepted her fate.

"It's not something I'm happy with. Never before has this happened,'' said Mewett when questioned on the topic. "It bothers me a lot.

"One thing I always said was that `once I start running I would never give up and always try to finish', but not this time.

"I had hurt my back and my hamstrings were tight and I wasn't going to put up with that for another lap. I said `look Sandra, you've got to make a decision' and in disgust I took my number off and walked home.'' Another runner making a return to competitive running on Sunday was Leon Matthews who was involved in a career-threatening accident on February 4 last year that kept him out for several months.

"It feels pretty good,'' said Matthews of his leg which was badly fractured.

Matthews ran in Saturday's 10-K.

"I only started back training at the end of August. I was out for seven months. The leg was snapped completely in half. Just looking at the break the doctors told me the operation would take two hours, but it took two-and-a-half hours.

"The bone has knitted back and there's no pain. Now I'm trying to run every day if possible.'' MIKE WATSON -- Setting his sights on 1995.