Marathon: 'Bissful' end to 21.2km in female bib

Tom Biss.

It's a classic case of gender bending on paper.

Hilary Bartlett was impressive in the Hawke's Bay half marathon in finishing 54th in a field of 2259 finishers of both genders.

The 20-something, sporting bib No2484, clocked 1h 34m 17s to finish fourth as a female from 279 in the 20-29 age bracket and seventh among the 1518 who conquered the 21.2km distance on Saturday.

But here's the trick question - how did the schoolteacher from Hastings do that without lacing up her shoes?

Bartlett, as it turns out, registered to run but injury took its toll.

Enter Tom Biss, desperately wanting to run after discovering his Napier City Rovers football team had a bye in the Chatham Cup round but race registrations had closed a fortnight ago.

To cut a long story short his aunty, Angela Makrif, and Bartlett are mates so the footballer bought her registration but, of course, couldn't change it to his name.

"I texted Angela the results and she just cracked up," said the 23-year-old, who didn't train for his first half marathon and got the entry only last Thursday.

"I was a bit nervous I would have tired at 17km but I felt good," he said, although he had run the Auckland Marathon last October.

If anything, he felt it was great endorsement of his training with the Convoy Removals-sponsored Rovers.

"We train twice a week with the team but then I also go to the gym as well outside that."