The whispers in the 42.2km circuit is Wreford harbours ambitions to compete at the Gold Coast Commonwealth games next year, which requires a scorching 2:12 qualifying time that looks do-able if Wreford didn't have to put the foot down on the accelerator today.
"It was like racing on ice," said the 2012 NZ crosscountry champion in his maiden run here, saluting his coach, Barry Magee, a former marathoner who won bronze at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
Wreford, who started running at 10 following some reinforcement from a schoolteacher, has won the Invercargill, Christchurch (twice), Rotorua and Auckland marathons. He holds the course records for Dunedin and the Legend marathons.
"Mad sports scientist" William O'Connor, of Hastings but studying and working in Palmerston North, was second in 2:45:55, 18m 43s behind Wreford.
Luke Hurring, of Auckland, was third in 2:48:40, a further 21:28 behind the winner.
The 32-year-old Canterbury University graduate, whose roots are in Dunedin, is reportedly the son of six-time Kepler champion and former race record holder Russell Hurring.
O'Connor was a guinea pig for his "Can I Run-Walk a Sub 2:40 Marathon?" project he wrote and posted on his business platform website called Performance Advantage.
"I looked like an idiot. I stopped and walked at intervals and other runners were asking me if I was all right," said the beaming 28-year-old who had worked out that in the six walking blocks, the maximum time he was going to lose is 3m 30s if he was running at 6km/h.
O'Connor, whose parents Frank and Carloyn, of Havelock North, were there to greet him at the finish line, said he had seen Wreford at the start line along Marine Parade, Napier, and knew his work was cut out when it started at 9am.
"I saw him standing there and I thought, 'You know he's top dog'," he said, still adhering to his run/walk plan.
"Second and third got some good minutes on that, maybe three or four minutes."
Echoing the sentiments of other runners, O'Connor said the head winds, especially in the second half of the marathon, made life difficult.
About 4km out of the finish line, he realised the pack chasing Wreford were struggling pretty hard.
"I had the legs obviously from the walk, preserving a little bit of fatigue pacing myself to finish second so that's awesome," said the former St John's College pupil.
He said today's head-to-head wind breaking up the course typified the need for a walk/run plan like the one the PhD student was advocating.
"It's a different running style to what everyone's used to. You're using larger muscles so it's more of a grind and those guys felt it. Oh, I was hurting, too, don't get me wrong."
The wind blew away any chance of clocking a sub 2:40.
Chris Sanson, of Manawatu, won the NZ Sotheby's Real Estate Half Marathon in 1h 12m 16s.
Former Napier Boys' High School pupil Daniel Wallis, who is based in England and was initially down to compete in the full marathon, was second in the 21.1km distance, clocking 1:12:32, finishing 16 seconds behind Sanson.
Ryan McAlister, of Blenheim, was third in 1:14:50.
