Butcher braves injury

Only the fact he had already paid for his air tickets persuaded Masterton endurance athlete Graeme Butcher to brave injury and compete in the Sri Chimoy 100km race in Christchurch earlier this month.
It was a gusty decision with shin splints having severely hampered his training programme in the three weeks before the event but it reaped its rewards, with Butcher taking the major spoils in a time of 8hrs 53mins.
"Honestly, I went there thinking I should probably have pulled out so I wasn't really planning on winning," Butcher said on reflection. "I guess the result surprised me more than anyone else."
The race was not only a physical test for Butcher but a mental one as well, requiring as it did for the competitors to complete 40 laps of a Hagley Park course, each one of them measuring 2.5km.
"It did get rather monotonous but at least it was in an area where things were going on and there was always people about," he said. Butcher said he had started slowly by design with the idea of "warming up" his shin splints in the least painful way and while he felt soreness there for the first 10km to 15km it was never enough for him to consider calling it a day.
"I was feeling a bit tired after only six laps and again towards the finish but apart from that everything went as well as I could have hoped for," he said. "Tiredness is something you learn to beat, you generally find it goes away if you keep plugging on."
Butcher's version of "plugging on" saw him take the lead in the 15-strong field after about 35km and from there it was a case of maintaining enough momentum to ensure any challengers were kept at bay.
"There was a point about the 60km mark when the guy behind me started closing in but I was able to up the pace a bit and keep him a decent distance away," Butcher said. The Christchurch event promises to be Butcher's last endurance race for some months as the shin splints are still a problem and will only mend with rest. So that means competing at the national 100km championships in Taupo next February is no longer on the agenda.
"It was always a toss up of whether I'd go and now I don't have to worry about making that decision," he said.