Victorious Neville Smith didn't know quite what to expect when he lined up for the Wairarapa country marathon, held over two laps of the Lees-Pakaraka road circuit on Sunday.
Smith, 28, from Hastings was trying himself out over the 42kms for the first time. He had raced in half-marathons beforebut most of his previous racing was on the track, over either 800m or the 3000m steeplechase. The decision to contest the Wairarapa marathon was simply a case of looking for another challenge and he had estimated a finishing time around 2hrs 40mins.
So he was understandably stoked to complete his assignment in 2hrs 29mins 43secs, more than 16mins faster than second-placed Peter Familton of Palmerston North.
Smith did question whether he had gone out too fast on a course which included a couple of nasty hills as he found the last 7kms hard going.
All told a field of 64 lined up for the marathon with Adrian Lysaght (2hrs 48mins 02secs) and Julian Davidson (2hrs 59mins 54secs) joining Smith and Familton as the four to break the three-hour mark.
First female finisher was Katrina Brougham in 3hrs 32mins 24secs.
The half-marathon run attracted 155 starters with Alasdair Saunders (1hr 18mins 14secs) the quickest, while there were 48 in the half-marathon walk which was headed home by Jon Roskvist in 2hrs 25mins 44secs.
The sole hand bike contestant was Catriona Williams, who registered a slick 1hr 49mins 39secs. The fun run-walk over 10kms drew a field of 184 contestants and the first to make the finish was Ben Winder in 36mins 45secs.
