on nothing short of establishing a new record in Sunday's Deloitte & Touche Road Relay at the US Naval Annex (10 a.m.).

In addition to having Maria Conroy Haydon, the top female finisher in last week's Elbow Beach Half Marathon, the foursome includes Anna Eatherly, Lynn Kynoch and Jane Christie. Eatherly and Kynoch are just coming off a cross country performance in Boston while Christie ran in the half marathon as well.

"Our goal is to go after the record, whether we can do it or not remains to be seen but that is our intention,'' said Eatherly yesterday.

The existing record of one hour, 10 minutes and 21 seconds was set in 1987 by a Touche Pas' team which was well out of reach of last year's winners from MAACademen'Nuts who triumphed in 1:14:50, a group featuring Margaret Young, Chris Sommerville, Peggy Couper and Debbie Butterfield.

The course has the four members of each team doing a three-mile leg which offers a huge challenge to the MAAC team who are more comfortable at running longer distances, but Eatherly still feels that the record could be within their grasp if each runner produces anywhere near their best efforts. The individual three-mile lap record for females is 15 minutes and 26 seconds set by Sandra Mewett in 1987.

Defending champions MAAC A Go-Go are heavy favourites in the men's division even though Tracy Wright will be absent from their ranks this time around.

However, with Mark Perry -- second in the half marathon last Sunday -- coming in as his replacement they are still a formidable group and will still be the team to beat.

Making up the foursome are Neil de St Croix and Jeremy Ball which is a team capable of reaching unlimited heights according to Wright.

"I have opted to take a break from this year's race, but they still have a team that is good enough to successfully defend the title,'' said Wright yesterday. "Mark Perry has been running good here lately and is a very capable replacement.'' Last year they were convincing winners, coming home almost three minutes ahead of the second place team in a time of 59 minutes and 58 seconds, a minute outside the 1988 record of 58 minutes and 48 seconds which was set by another MAAC team back in 1988.

The fine group of runners in the MAAC team this year will not only face the challenge of setting a new team record, but the individual lap record of 13 minutes and 50 seconds set by Kavin Smith in 1989 is a tough target they will undoubtedly be aiming for as well.

The male and female MAAC teams were among the early entries and race director Dave Colston said that a large field of teams were expected to beat the signing deadline set for last evening even though forms were slow in being handed in this week.