Hundreds of runners will participate in this weekend's Tarawera Ultramarathon, all with different goals, fitness levels and reasons for running.
Rotorua's Dennis Rollings, who is entered in his first 100 miler (160.9km), runs because it helps him cope during tough times.
Two years ago his wife Wendy was diagnosed withAlzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia, and Rollings has had to watch the woman he loves struggle with memory loss and cognitive issues.
They were living in Australia but moved home to Rotorua, where they got married, to be closer to family. He quit his job to care for his wife fulltime, until her needs became more than he could handle on his own and she moved into Cantabria Home and Hospital. Rollings still spends every morning at the home with her.
"The isolation [of running], I've found, has helped me cope with my wife's health since bringing her back from Australia and has motivated me to cope with all the changes to her lifestyle. I want to care for her the best I can. With the endurance training I found I had the ability to go three days caring for Wendy at home without sleep, purely through what I've done.
"Vascular Dementia is when your muscles and your body don't go in sync with your brain and its power to control it. She now gets to the point where she wants to stand up, but her mind can't physically make it happen. Everything is just gradually getting further out of sync - when she was diagnosed they gave her 10 years to live.
"There are times that I've been out in the middle of nowhere, crying a river, but that's how I handle it. The running has helped me really cope and get through it all.
"For me it was such a huge shock, to see what was happening to my wife. We were married 37 years ago, here in Rotorua. I'm going to dedicate this run to her, so I'll be well and truly motivated, believe me," Rollings said.
60-year-old Rotorua resident Dennis Rollings, running the Tarawera 100 miler this weekend. Photo/Stephen Parker
He played football for years but as he got older he looked for other ways to stay fit and healthy. Last year he completed the Tarawera Ultramarathon 102km run.
"It's just one of those things, you progress through the years. I'm a great believer in fit body, fit mind, so at 60 I'm quite happy to say I'll be running my 18th Rotorua Marathon this year and I've done three New Zealand Ironmans and I've been in 160km run relay teams.
"I heard about the Tarawera Ultramarathon while I was in Australia, I didn't even know my home town, where I grew up and was born, had this incredible, crazy event. So when I came home I had a crack at the 102km.
"The key was having a training plan which I did through Squadrun New Zealand (an organisation which provides professional coaching, mentoring and training plans). When I got to the finish line I felt really good, I felt good for the whole journey because I was prepared.
"The race is all about one thing to me, it's surviving the training and getting the training done to a good standard, but it's the mental strength you need towards the end of the race, that's what it's all about. You have to be mentally strong," he said.
He said another aspect of the Tarawera Ultramarathon he enjoyed was "sharing where I've lived most of my life with a lot of visitors from all over the world and meeting these visitors in our own backyard".
"I've been all through Europe, I've been to a lot of countries, but when I'm out there I find it very reassuring to be home and in a part of the world that is unique. There's nothing else in the world I've come across that is as good as this."
Rollings' attitude towards running, and life in general, is summed up by the sticker on the bag he will use during the event; a yellow smiley face with the words "100 smiler".
