In winning Athletics Whangarei's "gut-buster" two-day marathon held at the weekend, Mike Gowing drew on the strength that earned him a bronze medal in the men's over-50 grade at the recent World Triathlon Championships in Canada.
Despite his powerful style, Gowing felt the strain in the last of the weekend's three
runs. "It was tough, especially the half-marathon at the end," he said.
Richard Blogg also ran strongly to record a cumulative time for the three races just over one minute behind Gowing's overall time.
The marathon (42.2 km), run in three separate stages, over two days might sound easy. But relentless hills, mud, drenching rain and even a hailstorm thoroughly tested competitors' fitness, strength and willpower.
Morris Gray, the president of Athletics Northland, said the two-day event was introduced four years ago to provide something a bit different for the area's athletes.
The opening 16km stage was contested over hilly tracks in Glenbervie Forest on Saturday morning. Slippery mud, puddles and knee-deep freezing water added to the toughness of the run.
The second stage on Saturday afternoon, was a 5km run around the streets of Whangarei, which was probably the easiest of the three stages but the two-lap circuit did include a hill climb on Western Hills Drive.
The final gut-busting stage was a half marathon (21.1 km) on Sunday morning, run on hilly country roads starting from the Mata Hall.
Sixty-year-old Fred Needham ran impressively to gain third place.
At the other end of the age-scale, 16-year-old Dylan French showed remarkable potential to finish fourth.
After running off the course near the end of the race, Pamela Latter still won the women's event with Janice Powell in second place, only 29 seconds behind.
Results: Men; Gowing 1, Blogg 2, Needham 3, French 4, John Kent 5, Morris Gray 6. Women; Latter 1, Powell 2, Judith Bradshaw 3, Robyn Allen 4, Jackie Grant 5, Gillian Michel 6.
