Broken arm won’t stop me: Butcher

Ace Masterton endurance athlete Graeme Butcher isn't letting a fractured arm stop him from representing New Zealand in the 100km event at the Commonwealth ultra-marathon and mountain running championships in Keswick, England, in mid-September.
Butcher suffered his injury in early June and after undergoing surgery he is now in the process of receiving physiotherapy to return full movement to his arm and shoulder.
For the first four weeks of the injury be was unable to run but kept himself fit through daily walks and stints on a regular indoor cycle trainer.
And while he readily concedes getting himself into peak condition by the time of the Keswick event is a "tough ask" he is banking on his proven ability to overcome adversity to again come to the foire.
Adversity which saw him win a 100km event in Christchurch in 2007 despite carrying an injury and win the 2009 New Zealand 100km championships with only a similar amount of preparation time behind him, again because of injury hassles. Butcher admits, however, he won't be able to put in the weekly kilometres he would normally cover leading into such a major competition.
In a perfect world he would get up to 200kms per week but this time he will have to be satisfied in building up to 180kms and , typically, he is putting a positive spin on that situation.
"The bigger the kilometres you do the bigger the chance of injury so maybe it will be a good thing that the preparation will be lighter," he said, adding the intention was to have seven weeks of solid training before tapering off to the point where he rests for the last two weeks to "sharpen up".
One of the biggest problems for Butcher will be doing the necessary upper body strength work with the fractured arm meaning weight training is out for another month.
"Weights are a big part of training for an ultra runner because your arms, legs and back can start to get very sore after five or six hours on the road," he explained.
Joining Butcher in the New Zealand team for the Commonwealth 100km race will be Martin Lukes from Christchurch , who will actually be one of the favourites for the title.He has run a sub-2hrs 30mins marathon and was fourth in the world 100kim championships in 2006 in the excellent time of 6hrs 45mins.
Speaking of times Butcher says he will have a better idea of what his objective will be at Keswick after another four to five weeks training but he likes to think he will finish under nine hours. His pb is the 8hrs 31mins he took when winning the national title in 2006 and he clocked 8hrs 55mins when placing 55 th at the 2005 world champs in Japan
Supporting Butcher and Lukes in their endeavours at Keswick will be two time national 100km rep Jack Koenen of Auckland and Butcher is pleased with plans to have the Kiwis arrrive in England eight days before the championships so as to allow them to get used of the different time zones.
Meanwhile two former Masterton runners in Sarah Biss and Dougal Thorburn will be part of the eight-strong Kiwi mountain running team at the Commonwealth championships while four New Zealanders willl compete in the 24-hour running event, including Vivian Cheng from Wellington, who has contested the Wairarapa marathon in the past.