Marathon men excel in Rotorua

Athletics Masterton put in a tremendous performance to beat out the highly fancied Auckland and Wellington clubs in the men's teams' event at the 43rd Rotorua Marathon on the weekend, finishing second behind powerful locals Lake City.
The Rotorua marathon is New Zealand's premier running event, attracting a field of more than 1300 athletes, including several international entrants.
Included in the Masterton team was Julie Roots who, having won the 60-64 age group title last time out, came home with the 65-69 years title in a time of 5:02.27.
Masterton runner Graeme Butcher said the men had targeted the teams' event, where the times of the first four finishes are combined, but had not expected to get as far as they did.
"I don't know if the club has actually been placed in the teams' event before so it was a pretty solid effort," he said.
"We went up there and decided it'd be worth a crack and for us older guys to keep pace with the younger ones was pretty good work.
"It takes a bit of effort to stay up at that level."
Butcher, Gavin Graham and Mark Eagle all finished within three hours having cast aside their usual rivalries to work together for nearly the entire race.
Matt Harvey, who is better known as a cyclist, netted the fourth best time coming in just over the three-hour mark in only his second marathon, with Steve Hannam close on his heels.
"The hardest part was that we're so used to racing against each other that to turn around and be friends was a bit unusual," Butcher said.
"But we wanted to support each other for the team and it worked out well."
A conservative approach right from the start saw Butcher, Graham and Eagle steadily make their way through the field to complete the first 21kms four minutes short of one and a half hours. The trio stuck together right up to the 39km mark before Graham took the lead to finish 24th overall, with Butcher and Eagle 26th and 27th respectively.
Their results saw the latter two claim third and fourth places in the men's 45-49 years class while Graham took seventh in the 35-39 years age-group.
Also running for the men was Ian Ellis who showed remarkable courage just to complete the event after suffering an asthma attack inside the opening 15km. In the women's section, Jackie Ellis ran comfortably in her second marathon to finish 26th in the 45-49 age-group, though running partner Rowan Skinner had to withdraw with an achilles problem. Diana Eagle finished 121st out of 300 walkers. New Zealand Olympic runner Craig Kirkwood won the main event in just over 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Results: Gavin Graham 2:52.24, Graeme Butcher 2:53.01, Mark Eagle 2:53.35, Matt Harvey 3:05.14, Steve Hannam 3:06.11, Jackie Ellis 4:09.20, Ian Ellis 4:51.24, Julie Roots 5:02.27, Diana Eagle (walker) 5:56.44.