TWO of Wodonga’s star athletes have been running themselves ragged to be ready for Saturday’s Albury-Wodonga Gift.

Lee Forrest and Daniel Steinhauser have been slowly ramping up their preparations for the gift, with running coach Marcus Arnold doing his best to keep his athletes guessing.

“I’m like a chef changing the menu, I don’t want them doing the same stuff over and over again,” Arnold said.

“They’ve been doing the hard yards on the track and in the gym, so I think they’re in good shape, they’ll definitely make their presence felt.”

Former Wodonga Raider Steinhauser has shown good form of late, running third in the St Albans Gift a fortnight ago, and making the semi-final at Wangaratta last weekend.

“Daniel’s doing a great job of managing his body, obviously he’s got a couple of niggles left over from his football career,” Arnold said.

“Age can be a sticky thing, but he’s really learned to listen to his body, and choose when he needs to back off and when to pursue a really heavy training load.”

Arnold’s other runner, Lee Forrest, will look to back up his impressive third-place finish in last year’s gift.

Forrest, 19, will run with a handidcap of 3.50.

“Lee is very much a natural talent,” Arnold said.

“He’s had to make a few sacrifices in his training, he’s working 12 hours a day to save up for his degree in medicine so he obviously hasn’t got the same amount of time to train.

“Both of these guys will be out to put on a show for the locals.”