Whangarei runner Ady Ngawati is hoping to take a third win out of three attempts when she lines up at Devonport for the start of the Adidas Auckland Marathon tomorrow.
The 33-year-old won the 2007 Auckland Marathon and defended her title in 2008, where she completed the 42km course two minutes
faster than the previous year, setting a personal best time of 2h 46m 47s.
Ngawati skipped last year's marathon due to her heavy race schedule as she prepared for the World Offroad championships in Hawaii.
However, tomorrow the two-time Auckland Marathon winner will put her best foot forward, bidding for a third title in a race she has specifically targeted in 2010.
"I have had a much lighter race programme this year and raced my first marathon of the year last month. I had decided early in the year I wanted to have another crack at Auckland," she said.
Ngawati placed second in the Lydiard Legend Marathon during September, to current NZ marathon champion Shireen Crumpton from Dunedin, who was also using the hilly terrain of the Waitakere Ranges as training for tomorrow's event.
Crumpton will be hard to beat in the marathon which also doubles as the Athletics New Zealand National Championships, and Ngawati has been putting in the hard yards, focusing on speed work to match the petite "whippet like" Crumpton, over the past few weeks.
While training has been going well mostly, it has not been without its ups and downs. Last weekend she was bitten by a spider on the foot.
"It was swollen for a couple of days but I think it is okay now," she said.
The 2010 adidas Auckland Marathon sold out just a few days after the half marathon field sold out.
And the new Top of the Bridge Prime awards recognise the first male and first female runners in the full marathon to cross the top of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The Marathon starts at Devonport's King Edward Parade at 6.15am, and the course crosses the Harbour Bridge to Mission Bay before looping back to finish at Victoria Park, Auckland.
