Marathon: Evergreen runner hits 100-mark

Colin Thorne celebrates the completion of his 100th half marathon.

The weight on Colin Thorne's shoulders must feel immense - not that he would be too phased.

The Whangarei nonagenarian has made it across the finish line of his 100th half marathon in one piece, thus successfully ticking off another box to hang yet another weighty winners medal around his neck.

The 91-year-old ran the Air New Zealand Queenstown International Marathon's 21km race on Saturday, and completed it in a time of 3:16:52.

"I suppose there's plenty done more, but I don't know if there's many at my age," he said.

Enduring a mainly flat course, with some undulations to keep it interesting, and a unique mix of running terrain including smooth, hard-packed trails and road, Thorne said he was aware of the dangers on the offroad parts of the course heading into the event.

"I did it last year, and I thought it was the nicest one out of all the ones I'd done scenery wise," he said. "You've got to look at the ground a lot of the time [though] to see where you're putting your feet. There's tree roots on some of the track, and you gotta watch you don't pick up one of them."

Thorne said he "won't put a date on it," as to when he will run next, but hinted that he "might go to Kerikeri next year and do some shorter runs".

Thorne ran his 99th half marathon at the 2015 ACC Whangarei Half Marathon in a time of 3:02:18.

Meanwhile, a new course record for a new men's marathon winner and back-to-back victories in the women's race were other features of the Air New Zealand Queenstown International Marathon.

The second running of the event saw a sold-out capacity field of 9000 in various events take to the largely off-road courses that took competitors from Millbrook in Arrowtown, past Lake Hayes and through Frankton to the finish line in the heart of Queenstown, in near perfect conditions.

Tony Payne proved too quick in the men's field, posting an impressive 2:30:29 to break the course record.

Second place was taken by 46-year-old Graeme Taylor (Nelson), showing the value of experience on a challenging course.

Taylor bided his time and ran powerfully over the latter stages to move clear of 2014 champion James Parsons (Napier) and eventual third place getter John Csongei (Australia).

The women's race proved more clear-cut, with Victoria Beck overcoming a gastric bug to lead from the start, establishing a six minute lead over Mel Aitken before the midway point and then holding on, despite not quite holding on to her breakfast.