Ulra Marathon: Lake makes it twice in a row

Russel Lake won his second consecutive national 100km Road Race title.Photo/File

Tauranga Ramblers athletic club can proudly lay claim to having New Zealand's champions over the shortest and longest distances for the second consecutive year.

Joseph Millar is the much vaunted national 100m sprint champion and with a PB of 10.32s is the country's fastest man.

But Russel Lake deserves similar accolades after he won his second consecutive 100km title in the Sri Chinmoy 100km Road Race in Christchurch on Sunday.

Lake, 44, defended his title in the best possible style, setting a new course record of 7h 51m 13s that was 17 minutes quicker than his time to win in 2013, and more than 12 minutes better than the previous best time set by Seaton Meredith in 2006 of 8:03.34.

Christchurch runner Bryan McCorkindale was a whopping 40 minutes behind Lake in second place with a time of 8:32.54.

Lake was quietly confident he would repeat last year's feat, which was the first time he had entered the event.

"I didn't know who else was going to be in the event, that was the big unknown," Lake said.

"I was pretty confident that I could run faster than last year just because of another year of training and another year of doing these silly long runs."

Breaking the eight-hour barrier was something about which Lake was particularly pleased.

Lake, who is a multiple winner of the Tarawera Ultramarathon, admits he does not train as much as most marathon runners but has extraordinary capacity to go through the multiple mental challenges that afflict every runner attempting to run the equivalent of more than two marathons non-stop.

"Most weeks I run 120km, maybe 130km, and there were plenty of weeks I did less than 100km. But for me it is a matter of finding the time to fit in with getting a new business established and the family.

Trying to make it all work is always a challenge.

"The winter months are all about the cross-country and the road running season, which is good strength training for the legs, and then the summer months there is the Tuesday night athletics, which helps keep the speed in the legs.

"It works out really well. It is a good combination with the distance training as well."

In the women's 100km race in Christchurch, Mount Maunganui based ultra marathon runner Shannon-Leigh Litt, 35, pushed eventual winner Dawn Tuffery, 31, from Hamilton hard over the first 50km, before having to settle for second in 9:17.43.