This is another marathon blog penned by Geoffrey. Please contact me if you are interested in knowing more about anything related to this Marathon event.
This was the 60th running of New Zealand’s premier marathon event – the course winding around the iconic Lake Rotorua with a rich history in one of New Zealand’s major tourist destinations. In comparison with other global marathons it is small – only around 1,200 runners compete (and smaller than the Auckland Marathon) but it is the oldest running marathon in the country and the event doubled as the 2024 New Zealand Marathon Championship.
This was my 3rd time running Rotorua – the first effort was in 2018 where my time was a PW (personal worst) 4hrs 41min; my second effort 2023 not much better at 4hs 22min. It’s a challenging hilly course and a far cry from the smooth flat roads in the big city marathons. I was determined to at least run a respectable time this 3rd time round. For some reason I’ve struggled to master this event – it’s a little like the Queenstown Marathon where you need to be strategic otherwise you will be pay dearly for mistakes. The weather started a cool 9 degrees and with the experience of the event just 12 months earlier I was confident I could nail it on the head this time despite a less than ideal build-up. Starting off not too fast (as I had tried the previous year), I stayed with the pacers who were brilliant – I nailed the splits perfectly and ended up with just a 39 sec positive split. Final time was 4hrs 12min which I felt was the best I could do given my current fitness level and course conditions.
Absolutely rapped!
Marathon No.22 and Rotorua personal best!