When the plane carrying Catherina McKiernan to the biggest appointment of her career lurched in the wind in the final stages of its approach to Schiphol airport yesterday she exchanged apprehensive glances with her coach Joe Doonan.
McKiernan is in Amsterdam to chase a world marathon record tomorrow and with it, a cheque of more than £500,000.
And it is the elements, rather than the fragile opposition lining up with her, which pose the biggest threat to her hopes of securing her future financially in only her third race at the distance.
Wind has always been the scourge of marathon runners and as the Irish woman contemplated the prospect of being buffeted and blown about for approximately two hours and 20 minutes tomorrow, her prospects of breaking Tegla Loroupe's record of 2:20.47 were being revised downwards.
It was wild and depressingly wet in Amsterdam yesterday, but Doonan remained optimistic: "The forecast is that the winds will die down with a 70 per cent chance of rain tomorrow and I've never wanted the weather men to be more right," he said. "The rain we can handle but wind? Well . . ."
By common consent, McKiernan is in the best condition of her life, lean and strong and grown sufficiently in self belief to shed at least some of the caution in her earlier marathon runs in Berlin and London.
With male pacemakers being employed to ensure that she doesn't stray too far off schedule over the first 20 miles, she ought to be capable of improving significantly on the 2:23.44 figures which earned so much acclaim on her debut run in Germany 13 months ago.
"These are the kind of conditions which worry even the most experienced marathon runners, but at this point Plan A is still in operation," said Doonan.
"That could change during the race but the intention is that Catherina will go out looking for the record and we'll take it from there. We've done the work in training, now we want to see just how fast she can race."
In the parlance of marathoning, it's all about negative and positive splits. There are those who believe in going out conservatively in the hope that there will be enough left in the tank to sustain a quicker homeward run. Others gamble on running hard for the first half of the race to cushion against the hazards of fatigue in the closing stages.
McKiernan has chosen the first option in each of her earlier races but now the hope is that with the assistance of the pacemakers she can run two even splits of just over 70 minutes.
"It's a precise schedule demanding precise judgment," says Doonan. "But Catherina knows pace and if the guys in front of her do their job and the weather relents, it's achievable."
With Loroupe departed to New York to run in the big marathon there, it is left to Helen Kimaiyo to ensure the traditional Kenyan presence in the race. Kimaiyo ran 2:29.45 on her only other marathon appearance in London last year and despite a spell of altitude raining in Albuquerque, she is unlikely to find the improvement to finish in front of McKiernan.
Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia is back to defend a title she won in the mundane time of 2:32.07 in equally trying conditions last year, but at a press conference yesterday she was quoted as aiming to run under two hours 30 minutes for the first time.
In those circumstances, McKiernan's company is likely to be exclusively male over the last few miles. And with the burgeoning confidence of an athlete who has acquired an aura of invincibility since making the transition to road running, she is looking forward to the challenge of earning a place among the mega earners of Irish sport.
"People said that I finished so strong in Berlin that I could have run a lot faster than 2:23.44 and they were probably right," she said. "London was a tactical race but in each instance, my first concern was to get the distance and win.
"Now, I feel that much more confident. I still respect the event, of course, and the fact that in marathon running almost anything can happen. But I have to believe that if I run as I'm capable of running I can get close to what is an outstanding record."
