Marathon: Lace up your trainers for relay event at Redwoods

The Red Stag Redwoods Forest Relay (above) is being held in the Redwoods tomorrow. Photo / Ben Fraser

Pakuranga Athletic and Hamilton Hawks will look to defend their running titles at the 36th Red Stag Redwoods Forest Relay in Rotorua.

The long-standing relay event will be held in the Redwoods tomorrow at 10am attracting about 75 teams and more than 300 runners and walkers.

The event, hosted by the Lake City Athletic Club, will be based near the Redwoods Visitor Centre on Long Mile Rd.

The men's and women's open categories will see each team field five runners, who run one lap each of the 5km course.

Other categories include youth teams (for athletes 11 to 19) and masters teams. There will also be a walking category where teams are made up of two walkers.

The 2013 men's open winners Pakuranga (Auckland) are favourites to retain their title, but they will not have it all their own way as Hamilton City Hawks will be pushing them for the top spot.

The women's open section has attracted a small number of teams, but this should not detract from the racing. Hamilton City Hawks are likely to dominate with Lake City and Egmont Athletics challenging.

In the walk section Taupo Harriers, last year's winners, have entered a couple of fast teams but Calliope (Auckland) and the strong Tauranga Ramblers pairing may be the teams to upstage them.

Like last year, Williams and Wilshier, Rotorua logging haulage operators, have entered five two-person walk teams as part of their company's fitness programme.

The 2013 winning teams were:

Men's Open: Pakuranga Athletic (1.22.30); Women's Open: Hamilton City Hawks (1.42.29); Masters men: Hamilton City Hawks (1.25.09); Masters women: Lake City (1.45.00); Composite: Taupo Harriers (1.40.27); Male youth: Egmont Athletics (40.45); Female youth: Napier Girls High (47.59); Walkers: Taupo Harriers (65.19)