Butcher gets programme back on track

Masterton endurance athlete Graeme Butcher hasn't taken long to bounce back from his 55 th placing in the open men's event at the World Cup ultra-marathon 100km event held in Japan in late June.
In fact, so pleasing has been his recovery he is a possible starter in another 100km race , this one to be held over cross country in Sydney at the end of August.
Hosted by Oxfam Australia, it will be held off road over some rugged terrain and be run under a teams format .
Each team will comprise of four runners, all of whom have to finish together to count.Last year's winning time in the men's section was 15hrs 17mins.
Butcher, 43, is in consideration to be part of what has been labelled a "Kiwi Dream Team", the aim of whom would be to beat the Australians on their home turf and boost interest for a similar race to be held at Taupo by Oxfam New Zealand next April.
He is aware that competing in two 100km events in such a relatively short space of time will be a big test of both his mental and physical strength but completing a 50km training run around the Mt Holdsworth area over the weekend without any problems was a boost to confidence.
"It felt really comfortable?.more comfortable than I thought it would,' he said. "There were no aches and pains and that's a good sign."
Butcher sees the team format of the Sydney race as providing some "interesting" diversions with the likelihood of members going through bad patches at different times.
"The pressure will be on everybody to make it to the finish line so each time someone starts to struggle the others will need to slow down and help them out.," he said. "And when you have 100km to run it's the slowing down which can be a killer??you get into a rhythm and don't want to stop."
Oxfam is a registered New Zealand charity which works with others to overcome poverty and injustice They respond to humanitarian disasters like the recent tsunami and also work on programmes aimed at assisting some of the world's poorest nations.