Reporoa flier Michael Voss, pictured after winning the Copthorne Off-Road Half Marathon in 2016, will be one of the runners to watch in this year's Rotorua Marathon. Photo / File
Reporoa flier Michael Voss, pictured after winning the Copthorne Off-Road Half Marathon in 2016, will be one of the runners to watch in this year's Rotorua Marathon. Photo / File
Michael Voss does not enter running events merely for the fun of participating. He wants to win.
Running events are packed with people from all walks of life who are participating for a wide range of reasons - each as impressive and inspiring as the next. At the elite level are those with their eyes on a first-place finish.
Despite it being his first time running the full 42.2km distance, tomorrow's Rotorua Marathon will be no different for Voss.
The 21-year-old Reporoa local and apprentice builder won the half-marathon distance at the event in 2016. Last year he was sidelined by an injury but this year he is back to full fitness - and some - and ready to race his first full marathon.
He admitted to being a naturally competitive person.
"I'll be hoping to win it. I don't want to just run it to finish it, I want to race it. I'll be trying to sit at the front and see how long I can stay there. I'll try to go through the first half or three-quarters as comfortably as I can, aiming to stay up the front, then after that I'll start to try and wind it up, if there's still other guys around, and hopefully bring it home.
Runners take off at the start of last year's Rotorua Marathon. Photo / File
"I've only ever raced the half. You crank the mileage up a bit more [in training for a full marathon] and do some longer tempo runs and interval work. You still follow the same principles and just gradually build up to the longer distance," Voss said.
He said he felt he was back to his best after a long injury lay-off.
"I've been doing a lot of mountain biking instead, getting out in the forest, that's brought me back up to speed quicker than what I thought. It's definitely easier on the joints.
His favourite aspect of the Rotorua Marathon was the local supporters who turned out to cheer on the runners.
"I've enjoyed running the half-marathons in the past, there's always lots of support out there, hopefully the marathon's the same. There's the history around it too, the event has been around a long time and some big names have won it before. I'd like to add to that list," he said.
Race director Murray Fleming said they were expecting 3500 runners to compete across all of the day's events.
This compared with about 2800 last year.
Registrations will be open tomorrowfrom 6.30am until 9am.
Fleming said there would be about 1250 people running the full marathon, 1250 running the half and another 1000 doing the quarter-marathon and the 5.5km run.
