Liddell says the jogging club devotes Tuesdays to hills, Thursdays to speed work and Sundays to long-distance runs. "It's also an adventure. Last week, we did three different lakes and this week, four different lakes. We'll go to Hot Water Beach and then swim, or Okataina. It's just enjoying what's in our backyard. We're blessed and we should have the healthiest people in New Zealand living here with our outdoor resources."
Another Rotorua-based training group, Squad Run, provides programmes for beginners and elite athletes for a fee. Coach Ali Pottinger says she helped one woman who initially couldn't run 200m train to run 102km during an ultramarathon event. "Man, you can imagine the tears at the finish line. It's really cool...When you see it, a little seed plants and then slowly it kind of chips away at you...sort of like my friend who went and did the 102. She went to the start line of the Tarawera Ultramarathon a few years ago and saw all those people and thought, oh, maybe one day."
Liddell says she, too, would one day like to finish an ultramarathon, starting with the 50km distance. For now, she has no pace goal for the Rotorua marathon, just a plan to finish. "I don't really mind that it's taken so long - just now's my time- it's finally my time."
Rotorua Marathon
6 May
Australasia's oldest marathon event - turning 53 this year
Marathon ($129), half marathon ($99), quarter marathon ($45) and 5.5km fun run ($35)
Late entry fees apply from April 1
3500 athletes took part last year
www.rotoruamarathon.co.nz
Planning for Marathon #100 in Rotorua
We're 9km from the finish of the Kirikiriroa marathon in Hamilton last Saturday when a man wearing an orange Hawaiian print shirt and rainbow-coloured tutu recognises a reporter crouching in the grass with her camera phone. He scoops her up in a bear hug. Have I just ruined Ross Steele's chances of completing his 99th marathon by straining his back? Nope.
"Dawn, lovely to see you, mate" he says. Whew.
I've run to watch local history being made, one slow kilometre at a time. I'd expected to find Steele and his orange band of tutu-clad mates around the 37km mark. Checking Ross' Facebook page told he'd be much later than I'd expected. He hit the halfway point around four hours into the race. For reference, the average marathon (42.2km) finish time for US men in 2014 was around 4 hours, 20 minutes. I ask Steele if he's making this event last as long as possible. He says, "We're getting our money's worth. And it's just been really cool. So many people have rocked up in tutus and Hamilton is absolutely painted in orange. It's just one of those wow moments beyond belief."
Orange is Steele's signature colour, which he says race organisers were happy to promote. They also gave him number 99. Friends brought two balloons with the number nine, and another group of women greeted him at the start line dressed as runaway brides.
By the time I reach Steele and his 12 or so supporters, they're dead last in what can only loosely be called a race. Photos online show the group, who among them have completed hundreds of marathons and ultra-marathons, stopping to pose, eat lollies at aid stations and nosh on donuts, scones, slices and squares. Several friends have travelled from Christchurch for the event. Dennis Jordan, who's doing his 211th marathon, came up from Taranaki. He says, "I first saw Ross at the Southland marathon - He was wearing the shirt he's in now." The group laughs and Ross adds, "That day, Mad Mike (Tennent, a Rotorua marathoner) came up to me and he said, 'Boy are you trying to outdo me?' I ran in my orange Hawaiian shirt, purple lava lava and silver tinsel hair." Ultra-marathoner Ali Pottinger chimes in: "So Ross, the more marathons you do, the worse your fashion sense gets? Is that how it works?"
Kirikiriroa was meant to be Steele's 100th marathon, but arthritis in his left hip has set him back. He says his condition wasn't caused by racking up 60,000km during a quarter-century running career that's taken him to all seven continents. Instead, his surgeon told him arthritis is in his genes. "My dad had five hip ops in his time. His brother two, my brothers, two and one."
While arthritis has slowed the Hamilton event to a walk (using poles for the last 10km) empathy has led Ross to turn his 99th marathon into a fundraiser for Alzheimer's Tauranga in honour of Thomas Morgan. He's the father of Steele's best friend, Lee Murray, and a former marathon runner who's fighting a long battle with dementia. Steele's efforts netted about $2000 for the cause.
Steele says runners have bolstered him through life's challenges and heightened his celebrations. While nephew Jeremy Steele is walking his first marathon with this group, the rest of the gang are linked through sweat, not blood. Steele says, "I come to these events, and it's like going to a family reunion. The running community is the most cool community I could ever want to belong to, like-minded people out there doing big distances having a mountain of fun and living life."
Two-hundred metres from the end, we stop for another photo. Then Steele takes his grandchildren, 6-year-old Caitlyn and 8-year-old Jacob, by the hands and strolls to the finish. Eye of the Tiger blares from speakers as he turns to face the cheering crowd of around two dozen people before stepping over an orange feather boa and sneaking across the line with his 'grandies.' "Seriously cool. Seriously cool," Steele says before event organiser Himanshu Parmar (Ash) drapes a medal around his neck. The tail-enders have taken around eight hours to complete the marathon. It was his slowest 42.2km event to date, but no less special.
The group celebrates with banana cakes decorated with '99' and bottles of bubbly. As for what's next, Steele says, "Unless my surgeon tells me otherwise, Rotorua on the sixth of May will be my 100th. It'll be my 24th Rotorua marathon."
Bring on the orange tutus.
Kirikiriroa Marathon
Focus on first-timers and affordability ($32 entry)
Course starts and finishes at Hamilton Gardens and winds along the Waikato River
170 runners finished the full marathon in 2017
www.kirikiriroamarathon.co.nz
