Rotorua Marathon

Rotorua. What can I say? Once again it was a brilliant weekend spoiled by only a short period of pain. Around 9km worth for me. Beautiful start to the day and slightly larger than usual crowd gathered on the start line (around 2465?). I was there beside Craig Mathers (he was really quite nervous I think) but no sign of Arthur. I told him the night before that he was on his own (for those of you that dont know, Arthur and I have trained together for this year's Rotorua and the plan was for me to run with him and hopefully drag him through to a good time). I had decided that I was in pretty good shape and I would not be happy unless I at least tried to do my best. I thought perhaps 2:48 may have been there but decided to run to what I felt on the day. As the cannon fired and we all headed off and I quickly settled into a comfortable pace, one that I felt I could maintain for the full distance - turned out to be around 4:10 kms (2:56 pace on a flat course). I maintianed this effort level dilligently all the way to 10k (41:50) and was still pretty happy and stress free. Great to see lots of support on the side of the road. Graham Edmundson and Annika were there, the Betty's (including Josh), Leo Pearce was a surprise face on the road side although I'm not too sure if he was serious about the cigarette he offered me! I ran comfortably on into the fog and mist and the temperatures plummeted out the back of the lake, quickly cooling off the muscles which had reached a good working temp - something I feel may have contibuted to the problems later on - 20km approached and I still felt good, having slowed going up all the hills and cruised down the other sides just as planned. (43:34 for that 10k) sitting on a 3hr average now but with most of the hills gone. Carefully on but still well in check, and out the other side to the channel. Back into the adoring crowds(?) and feeling great. Right, up the long climb at 25km taking it quite easy and ignoring the people going past, I'll have the last laugh. Still feeling good at the top, one more little climb and at the 32k mark I'll have a go at making a big dent in the 3 hours. Hang on, I'm feeling good, 28k, only 14 to run let's have a go from here. I picked up the pace and started picking off people left right and centre, Yeehah. Felling great and passing people at the airport instead of them passsing me. If I can keep this up I'm going to run 2:54. 30k passes with a 10k split of 42:43. Average still bang on 3hours, but hey I've got 52 minutes to cut out this last 12k and its only going to take 48 at worst. Shortly after that, around 32k the legs atarted to get a bit tired, that's cool I'll just back it off a bit up this little climb and cruise the downhills, no problem. At 33 km my groin abductors(?) were screaming ... and the downhills were no easier. A couple more k's and the quads joined the party. I passed a guy on the road side stretching on a lamp-post. No good doing that I thought, It's my quads. Cant even stretch them with out risking cramping my hamstrings! The last 9km of the Marathon were passed in constant, excruciating pain. Several things kept me going including running the Hastings Half with Mark Todd. He dug really deep and stuck at it with me hanging on his shoulder and keeping him going. All those people saying "a slow jog is better than a walk". "Bloody hell, I hope Arthur doesn't catch me" (Turns out he was saying "Bloody hell, I hope Dally doesn't catch me")(And Paul was saying "Bloody Hell, I hope Anne doesn't catch me"). 40km came up with a 10km split of 44:29 for a 2:52:36 total - hey, I could have creamed that last 2.2 at the start of the day! The last 2.195km took me 10:38, Brendan (my youngest son, age 7) could have beaten me. Got the race photographer a beauty though, just as he pushed the shutter I put my hands over my face. The look on his face as I took my hands down was priceless! I staggeered across the finish line in 3:03:18. Not a bad time I suppose but I'm really pissed off at the silly way I finished the race. Should have been an easy 2:58:00. Maybe next time? Mark Speakman

Runners
Craig Mathers 2:46:23 (20 overall, 15 MO)	Mark Speakman 3:03:18 (74/40)
Arthur Corbett 3:23:28	Jo Cavanagh 3:37:21 (3rd W40)
Joanne Tonge 3:46:06	Neville Haggart 3:46:12
Russell Price 3:45:36	Mike Damen 3:50:50
Algy Rudzevecuis 3:59:01	Paul Dally 4:10:27
Corinna Turner 4:10:52	Garry Turner 4:10:52
Brian Stitson 4:11:08	Helen Tobin 4:23:51
Peter Graham 4:25:21	Rex corby 4:30:55
Roy Evans 4:43:55	Richard Crooks 4:44:04
Neville Gimblett 4:50:53	Alf Richards 4:51:52
Paul Bee 4:59:33
Walkers
Robin Wolfsbauer 4:59:06
Kathy Beyer 5:08
Ann Thorogood 5:23?
Russell Pattison 6:10:09