Half Marathon: Racer recovers from Rotorua setback

Kyle MacDonald takes out the 28th annual Mount Joggers and Walkers Half Marathon. Photo/George Novak

Kyle MacDonald got back on the horse at the Mount Joggers and Walkers 28th Half Marathon to win by more than four minutes over his brother, Iain MacDonald.

A month after pulling out of the Rotorua Marathon at the dreaded 36km point due to an illness he could not quite shake in the week leading up to the event, the Tauranga runner again excelled on home turf.

The one-two identical twin finish was a repeat finish of the Tauranga Half, with Kyle again slogging it out up front for the majority of the race without company.

His time of 1:11:15 was just three seconds slower than Ben Ruthe's winning time of last year.

"It would have been nice to have some support out the front - it was similar to the Tauranga Half," MacDonald said.

"I didn't expect Iain to come with me and sometimes it just comes down to who shows up on the day.

"I thought Ben Ruthe or a couple of out-of-towners might show up for the long weekend, but I could basically tell from the start that there wasn't going to be too much help out front."

He was happy with how his body had recovered after breaking down in Rotorua.

"Down there, I got dropped just after 21km and thought those guys might come back to me a little bit, but I was tightening up quite badly after 33km and pulled the pin at 36km.

"I should have finished, but I was going backwards so quickly.

"They say you start to do the irreversible damage to the legs after 36km so the last bit would have done some damage and I wouldn't have been here today."

Kirsty Sclater was the first woman home in 12th place overall in a time of 1:28:00, followed by Jessica Dean in 1:29:34 and Fran Martell in 1:30:21.

Brad Luiten and Rachel Smith led the men and women home in the 10km in times of 36:32 and 41:03, with Lachlan Haycock and Siobhan Griffiths taking the honours in the 5km in times of 19:15 and 22:13.

Close to 1200 people participated, slightly down on last year.