While he has Hungary on his mind, standout Wanganui Collegiate runner Christian Conder was still happy to join his fellow locals for the 16km dash from Castlecliff Beach to the Aramoho Top 10 Holiday Park yesterday morning.
The teenager, who along with Jane Lennox, departs in three weeks to competeat the ISF World Schools Cross-Country in Hungary, dominated the Wanganui Harrier Club's annual Brine to Wine road race.
In a good field of entries, Conder ran out alone at 9am to catch up with the rear of the walkers' races, who started an hour earlier, and dash across the line in 1h 46s.
Harriers spokesman Bill Charnock said the fastest time he has seen in the race in the past 10 years was 1h 1s.
Conder said he found the pace "hard, but good" as he had a go at breaking the hour mark.
The walkers race was won by Tim Eaton in 1h 53m, which he said was "very slow for this event", although it should be noted his group's warmup was a 16km stroll from parking their cars at the finishline and going back to Castlecliff.
Eaton agreed the large turnout was great for harriers as there were 107 individual entries - the walkers group larger than 2015's entire entry list.
"I'd like to see schools do it more though," Eaton said.
