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Australian Jeff Hunt is confident he can run three good marathons in six months, including the London Olympics.
Conventional running wisdom says that three marathons in six months is far from ideal.
But Jeff Hunt is ready and willing to give it his best shot after he and Martin Dent were added to the Australian squad for the London Olympics.
Michael Shelley was the only Australian man to better the tough Athletics Australia (AA) mark of two hours and 12 minutes inside the qualifying period.
But the AA selectors chose to also reward the consistency of Olympic debutants Hunt and Dent, both of whom have regularly run under the less onerous standard of 2:15:00 set by the IAAF.
Hunt's two most recent marathons were in Beppu-Oita, Japan in February (2:13:19) and Hamburg (2:14:19) late last month.
With the London marathon slated for the final day of the Games on August 12, that will make it three times over the gruelling distance of 42.195km in half a year.
"It's got to be a lot of mind over matter," said the 29-year-old Hunt.
"Just because the old boys say you've got to recover and take it easy, that doesn't mean you can't change the mould.
"I've recovered really well between Japan and Hamburg and I think I can do it again.
"It's staying on top of all the maintenance, the stretching and the exercise.
"You don't automatically lose fitness just because you have a couple of weeks of recovery.
"There's no reason why I can't run at my absolute best in London."
Hunt believes a time around the mark of 2:12, which he has consistently run in the past couple of years, should see him finish in the top 15 in London and maybe as high as the top five, depending on conditions.
He will be a part of a full complement of six Australian marathoners at the London Games after Dent was also added to a squad including Shelley, Lisa Weightman, Benita Willis and Jessica Trengove - all of whom bettered the AA qualifying standards.
AA also finalised its Olympic walking squad on Thursday, with Chris Erickson and Adam Rutter getting the nod over Luke Adams for the remaining two vacancies in the 20km event.
Adams will focus on the 50km race.
Jared Tallent will again double up in both walks, just as he did in Beijing four years ago when he was second in the 50km and third in the 20km race.
