New marathon among the vines

L-R: Ian Collier, and Meghan Blair Auckland, at at the launch of the new Hawke's Bay International Marathon.

Hawke's Bay's well-established network of cycle trails helped it stand out as the best region in which to establish a new world-class marathon, the event's organisers say.

The inaugural Air New Zealand Hawke's Bay International Marathon will be run on May 14 next year and is expected to attract more than 2000 competitors, most from outside the region.

Details of the event, which will also include a half-marathon, 10km run and 3km kids' race, were revealed at a function in Napier yesterday.

"As we assessed the options and looked around the country, it was actually a very quick discussion to put Hawke's Bay on the top of the list in terms of where we wanted to replicate what we'd done down south," said Dave Beeche, chief executive of event organiser Lagardere Unlimited Oceania.

Rather than an event for "hardcore runners", the marathon would target a broader audience, including "the more social fun-runner who is there as much to achieve a goal of running their first half or full marathon, as well as enjoying some social time with friends and family," Mr Beeche said.

The marathon will start in Napier and finish at Sileni Estates Winery outside Hastings, covering a "hybrid course" of roads and off-road trails, which Lagardere believed would appeal to runners.

"The investment this region has put into its bike trails provides a great platform for running events as well because they make a fantastic running surface. They're a bit easier on the knees for the older people," Mr Beeche said.

"With the course we've created, we've managed to highlight most of the fantastic assets of this region."

A new Queenstown marathon run by the company for the first time last year attracted almost 6000 runners, with 90 per cent of them from outside the region.

Lagardere's "best guess" was that the Hawke's Bay run would attract 2000 or more runners in its first year. "We want this to get big," Mr Beeche said.

Air New Zealand regional affairs manager, Ian Collier, said the airline's support for the event was a "no-brainer" as it increased seat capacity into Hawke's Bay by 5.5 per cent over the next 12 months, through the transition to flying in more larger 68-seat aircraft.

Air NZ added 3500 seats into Queenstown for its marathon weekend last year.
Hawke's Bay Tourism general manager Annie Dundas said the marathon would be marketed under the "Hawke's Bay banner".

"So we won't have a logo fest - that's good, we want people to know about getting to Hawke's Bay. With this event they are going to see a lot of it," she said.
"It's our regional events strategy in action."