This time last year Dale Warrander was poised to run the Rotorua marathon as part of his build up to the Athens Olympic Games. The pressure was on.
This year, however, the spotlight is not nearly as blinding and the Tauranga-based runner is hoping that will allow him to better navigate his way around the 42.2km lake loop on Saturday.
"There was more pressure on last year with the Olympics ... and I had to perform," he reflected. "I threw it all down on the line, particularly with Phil Clode running as well, so in comparison this year is a little different."
Warrander was recently forced to bypass the world marathon championships in favour of focusing on next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne after discovering the Auckland marathon course where he won in November wasn't officially signed off by Athletics New Zealand.
As such he has been building solidly for tomorrow's Lion Foundation event before setting his sight's on July's Gold Coast marathon.
"It's [my training] been good, it's been consistent . I've been training around 90 to 100 miles [145-160km] week in and week out and last week stepped it up to 110," he said. "I feel I am in better shape than last year."
Warrander, who finished 33rd in the marathon at the Athens Olympics and has a personal best of 2h 12m 58s recorded in Japan in 2003, won the Rotorua event in 1996 in 2h 21m 47s. Last year he overcame the horrendous weather conditions to clock 2h 23m 40s and this year he is predictably coy about his estimated time.
"I treat any race with respect and won't be out to muck around," he said.
Even though his biggest competition is predicted to come from Auckland's Joe Piggin, who finished second to Warrander in Queenstown in 2h 35m 44s, and Japanese runner Yasunori Yamamoto, who has a best of 2h 16m 19s, Warrander is focusing on his own race.
"It's anyone's guess how the race will unfold, but my preparation involves focusing on my own race - you can't dictate your race according to someone else's plan."
Last year's women's winner Tracey Clissold will not be tackling tomorrow's event, instead she has opted to run the Gold Coast marathon in a bid to qualify for the world champs. Her absence will open the women's section right up with many runners estimating their time just over the three hour mark including Auckland's Joanna Gemmell, Waiheke Island's Melanie Burke, Wellington's Helen Ewing, Bernie Portenski and Michelle Allison.
Portenski, who holds four women's age group race records from W35 to W50, will be all out to add another record in the W55 age group. The record stands at 3h 13m 53s and Portenski has estimated 3h 12m while her sister Allison has an estimate time of 3hr 10m in her 45-49 age-group.
Race director Angela Salmon said as of last night she had received 1800 entries for the marathon and marathon walk and a combined 800 entries for the 5km and 10km events. She said people could still enter the fun 5km and 10km events up until 8.30am tomorrow morning.
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