Runners make their way around the course in the Auckland Marathon. Photo / Greg Bowker
Runners make their way around the course in the Auckland Marathon. Photo / Greg Bowker
Editorial
Early tomorrow morning thousands of Aucklanders will get out bed and go to Devonport in the dark, there to line up for the start of the Auckland Marathon.
By Sunday breakfast they will be well on their way, facing a gruelling 42km run up to Smales Farm, Takapuna, down theNorthern Busway, across the Harbour Bridge, along the city waterfront and Tamaki Drive to St Heliers, where they turn for a run back to Victoria Park.
It is hard to think of a more scenic course but there must be easier ways to enjoy it.
We want them to know their fellow citizens are in awe of them. Few of us might be turning out to watch and urge them on, even if we live along the route - and let's hope none of us are complaining that traffic may be restricted on parts of it for a few hours - but a moment's consideration of what these Aucklanders are doing is reason to toast them.
Those setting out to run the full distance, or even the half marathon, will have needed months of daily training for the challenge they face this morning.
Every one of them will be facing it for their own reasons in their own way.
They will have needed intense personal motivation to persevere with the daily fitness programme, not to mention diet, and they will need that same motivation to get through the stages of exhaustion they will experience today.
Besides their personal achievement they are giving Auckland one of its finest annual events.
