Marathon: Injury anguish as leader walks home (+pics)

Japan's Naoko Tsuchiya wins the women's title at the 51st anniversary Rotorua Marathon on Saturday. Photo / Stephen Parker

There is a saying at the Rotorua Marathon - the first runner over the Mourea hills is not necessarily the first at the finish.

Tauranga's Jess Ruthe discovered the brutal truth of that saying on Saturday.

The former Auckland Marathon winner built a huge lead in the women's marathon race before injury cost her the title.

After 25km she was already six minutes ahead of her nearest rivals, and she extended that lead even further as she charged towards the finish line.

But with about 10km to go she suffered a calf injury and had to walk the rest of the way. To her credit, she still managed to finish the race but placed 33rd.

That made way for Japanese visitor Naoko Tsuchiya who won the women's race in a time of 2hr 53min 24sec.

Image 1 of 13: Conrad Langridge

Tsuchiya, a three-time winner at the Sydney Marathon, finished just under two minutes ahead of Erin Furness (Hamilton) and about five minutes ahead of Aucklander Katie Wyrill in third.

"I can't believe that I won," Tsuchiya said. "I am very happy."

Tsuchiya is the third overseas runner to win a title at the Rotorua Marathon and follows the win of Japan's Masataka Uchino last year.

Furness said Tsuchiya broke away from her with about 6km to go. "She is really strong. In the first 25km when she was running next to me I could hear her breathing and I remember thinking, man, she is breathing really hard she must be working.

"So I thought that's all right she will probably blow before the end, but she definitely proved me wrong, she's a tough runner."

Furness said she felt for Ruthe.

"The last I heard she had a seven-minute lead on us and I just thought man no one is going to catch her, then someone said first place is walking and I just thought with seven minutes she can probably afford to walk.

"So I was surprised that we did catch her and it is really bad luck ... she would have taken this race out if that hadn't happen."