Weekend Preview: 10, 15 or 30?

What's your medicine this weekend? 10? 15? Even 30? Kilometres, of course.

Three races on the Open Podium calendar. Right now, two of them are qualifiers, and one has a real prize up for grabs.

That's the Rye Ancient Trails 30K. Thanks to Will at 1066 Trail Races for offering the person who beats their target time by the most a free entry for them and a friend to any of their races.

With the bottleneck now removed early in the route, this should be a fair race in terms of target times. A few extra minutes have been added to compensate for the other stiles we have to climb — and of course, the extra distance once you pass that misleading 30K sign. Damn you, 30K sign.

If you're doing the 30, please make sure you're prepared. We could be out there a long time — hydration and fuelling are key, and there might be some H2O falling from the sky. Hopefully not a lot.

Reports from organisers Nice Work suggest the trails are dry, and I'll be wearing my comfy road shoes. Although given the summer we've had, be careful of your footing in places — rutted trails can test those ankles.

For those doing the 15, good luck. We're just a few runners away from that being a qualifier. What does that even mean, you ask?

Well, each race here at Open Podium with 10 runners or more is deemed a qualifier. That means a win, podium finish, top 10, or top 20 will be recorded on your stats. I just checked my own results — 6th at Kings Head Canter, 66th at BBB10K. 666? 👿 I'll be happy just to get round alive tomorrow.

We've got a dozen so far for the 30K. I appreciate that of all the races to be chasing target times, this probably isn't the most suitable — so please, if you're treating this as a long, easy run, do just that. Regardless of your time, you'll still get points for participation, and who knows, you might sneak into the top 10.

If you're not heading to the beautiful, historical town of Rye to listen to the pre-race bellows of the Town Crier, then I suspect you're heading to Hellingly 10K, hosted by our friends at Hailsham Harriers.

Thank you if you've already signed up. Good luck chasing your target times. Sadly, no prize for this race despite my best efforts — but a win to your name on the Open Podium dashboard is not to be sniffed at.

Don't forget to use your pacing plans. Twice in recent weeks I've benefited from the pacing advice — first to beat my target time on Bank Holiday Monday, then to help those planning on getting back to the Abbey in under an hour.

You can change how you pace the race. If you're going for the win, select "Stretch Goal," or even "Dream Goal." You can also tweak your pacing strategy — fast off the line, or a more conservative approach with a strong finish.

Please do share with other runners too, if you get chatting pre or post-race. Tell them about your target time, how you fared, and how great the concept is.

If you're at Rye, come and say hi, before or after the race. If I'm feeling confident, I may recite the sales pitch I've been practising to encourage more people to sign up.

Come back next week as I digest the results from this weekend's action — assuming I've not been captured by Lucifer.