RTE reports Mo Farah admits conditions could be against him in the European Cross Country championships in Dublin tomorrow.
Farah won the title in 2006, only the second Briton to do so, but did not defend his title the following year and then lost out to Sergiy Lebid in Brussels in 2008.
Now he faces Lebid again over 10 kilometres on a course which will be very muddy after heavy rain in recent weeks.
'Personally I prefer a smooth course, not muddy,' Farah said. 'But every athlete has to deal with it no matter what the conditions are.
'The European Cross is a big thing. It's not going to be easy but to win would be nice.'
Farah's self-belief is extremely high after victory over 10 miles in the Bupa Great South Run at the end of October, followed by a highly successful high-altitude training camp in Kenya.
'It went really well, five weeks' solid training and hard work,' Farah said.
'There are lots of groups training out there. I know why they're so good because they eat, sleep, train and run.
'I would turn up to the track at any point and there would be 50 people there training in groups.'
Farah, the European indoor 3,000m champion, believes those tough sessions will be beneficial when attempting to prevent Lebid achieving an amazing ninth European title.
Farah added: 'His Olympics is this race. He was preparing for the race probably four or five months ago and just thinking about this race.
'He does not get ready for the European or World Indoors. His one focus is this one race a year.
'But he can be beaten. He was going to do it eight times in a row when I stopped him in 2006.'
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