KEY POINTS:
On a summer camping holiday, a teenage Nina Rillstone discovered Lorraine Moller on the pages of a running magazine.
The kid had just found running - and finished her first half-marathon, jogging along Christchurch's Avon River and around Hagley Park beside her mum and dad.
The magazine story captivated her.
It told of Moller's loping strides across the world stage, winning road races in the United States before grasping an Olympic bronze medal in 1992 with a gutsy marathon run in Barcelona.
"You know," Rillstone's parents, Gwenda and Dougal, told her as she read, "you could race like that one day."
It seemed an impossible dream but a spark had flickered alight. This weekend, the Aucklander will line up in the New York Marathon, with more than a little help from Moller, with whom she stayed for seven weeks.
"Little did I know it would take me more than 10 years to do some road races in the US, begin my marathon career - and actually stay with Lorraine in her home," Rillstone, 31, says. "Well, patience is everything in this game."
The teenage running enthusiast has developed into one of the country's best hopes in women's marathon running since athletes like Moller, Anne Audain and Allison Roe in the 1980s and early 90s.
New York will be Rillstone's second marathon; her 2h 29m this year at Nagano was a New Zealand marathon debut record, the fifth fastest by a New Zealand woman - and the fastest in 20 years.
She had stepped up to the 42.2km event having blazed to a New Zealand record over the half-marathon of 1h 10.49m - in the Christchurch event she had run alongside her parents. She was a credible 15th at the world cross-country champs this year, and has placed in international road races during the last two years.
But marathons are another dimension.
Sure, half-marathons and 10km races deplete the body, pushing legs and lungs to their limits. The marathon saps more than a runner's physical energy - it drains the mind and tests the spirit.
Spirituality is not something Rillstone had considered much before. But while living with Moller and her husband, Harlan, at their home in Boulder, Colorado, she learned the importance of mental and spiritual fortitude.
"I feel like I have grown a lot both as an athlete and a person since I had that time with her," says Rillstone. "I've had my eyes opened to a lot."
Moller says Rillstone has plenty going for her. "She is a real thinker. It takes a certain intelligence to run a marathon well."
Whereas runners are fixated by miles and times, Moller says marathoners have to recognise it takes more than training the body.
"We also have to draw energy from other sources such as what we get from being highly motivated, having our mind tuned to be highly focused, and inspired."
From what she has seen of Rillstone, Moller has hope. "She's obviously got a lot of talent and she's not intimidated."
Rillstone went to Boulder at the suggestion of other Kiwi athletes who have benefited from the altitude, climate and trails of the town. Rillstone got in touch with Moller, who's lived there for 26 years, hoping for advice on where to stay.
She was "blown away" when Moller invited her into her home. It was a perfect place to be before a big race, and the experience left her motivated about New York, where she arrived last week.
On the first day she ran in Central Park, she noticed the chatter of other runners seemed to only be about the marathon. "I'm really excited. It's not a fast course by reputation, but it's certainly prestigious," she says.
Her Nagano time already qualified her for the world championships next year, so there's no pressure to hit a certain time, although she does want to lower her best.
Beyond New York, she is aiming for the world championships and the Beijing Olympics. In pursuit of those goals, she became a full-time athlete a year ago, (with some part-time work for IT database firm Atlantis when she is in Auckland), helped out by sponsorship from adidas and an AMP scholarship. "I've also got the most wonderfully supportive parents," she says.
After all, it was they who first encouraged the kid to run, a journey which has taken her from that camping ground where the dream began to the streets of New York.
