Darren McGarvie: Tarawera Ultra an inspiration

Tarawera Ultramarathon founder Paul Charteris. BEN FRASER

A key part of Rotorua's X vision is to provide inspiration to the business community. It is through encouraging new ideas that we will experience growth in our town.

We provide inspiration through our range of guest speakers at our monthly Rotorua X Connect events. At our last event we were lucky to have Paul Charteris, founder of the Tarawera Ultramarathon.

His story was so inspirational I wanted to share it with you and prompt all of you to support the people in our town taking a leap of faith and going out in business.

In six years Paul has created a world leading event that last year joined the inaugural Ultra Trail World Tour. It is now part of a 10 race global circuit of the biggest and most prestigious international races in the world.

If this achievement isn't amazing enough, Paul created this event in his 'down time'. It is only this year that he has taken the plunge and left paid employment to run the Tarawera Ultra full time.

We cannot underestimate what this means for our district and NZ. In 2015 this event will bring a thousand competitors with 2-3 support crew each who will all stay on average 3-4 nights. Each year this means that thanks to Paul's vision and drive we have more than 10,000 additional visitor nights plus all the other economic benefits!

As with any new business it all started with an idea in 2008. Paul had a vision to create a big world-class event. The first year of Tarawera Ultra was run on a shoe string budget but focused on ensuring runners had a great experience. Continuing this focus has resulted in the race being a world leading sporting event.

Over the last six years the event has grown and Paul has achieved his vision. The event's international growth potential has recently received a boost through a successful application to Government's Major Events Development Fund.

A $300,000 investment from Government over three years will help build the Tarawera Ultramarathon's international profile, grow the number of total competitors and international media, and leverage ongoing relationships with local iwi to promote business and tourism opportunities.

This is all great news for Rotorua. If our district is going to grow we need to support the people who are trying to create new businesses, events and enterprises in our town. It also acts as inspiration for those out there with an idea.

- Darren McGarvie is the Chairman of the Rotorua X Charitable Trust. To find out more go to www.facebook.com/rotoruax or email rotoruax@gmail.com.