Marathon: Tough regime pays for Piggin

Joe Piggin has had his heart set on winning the Rotorua Marathon for the past year and he devised a training programme to achieve his goal.

He teamed up with Scott Winton, who was aiming for a Beijing Olympic Games qualifying time in the recent Hamburg marathon, on a tough training regime around the streets of Auckland.

On Saturday around the picturesque Lake course it all came together as the 30-year-old university lecturer swept past a tiring Craig Kirkwood at the 35km mark and went on for a memorable victory.

Although not particularly fast, given the bitterly cold head-wind the runners had to face over the final 17km, it was the win that mattered for Piggin as the event doubled as the New Zealand championship.

"That was the best race of my life," said an elated Piggin on finishing.

"I loved every moment of it, I'm absolutely stoked. I've had a great build-up for this race on the toughest of training regimes with Scott Winton."

Kirkwood set out to repeat his victory of last year, setting a scorching pace from the start. He was through the first 5km in 16m and the 10km in 32m 4s. Only the Japanese visitor Kazunari Suzuki made a vain attempt to try to foot it with Kirkwood. The halfway came up for Kirkwood in 1h 9m 18s, and despite holding a handy lead, Piggin was closing in.

He went on to record 2h 27m 43s, a minute ahead of Kirkwood.

Hanny Allston from Hobart, Tasmania, was running in memory of her coach who died last week, in winning the New Zealand women's marathon title.

The 22-year-old now resident in Auckland was spurred on over the final 10km, by his memory, in a fitting tribute to 80-year-old Max Cherry.

"He was there when I ran my first marathon and I felt him there again urging me on," said Allston.

Allston was locked in a two-way battle with three-times previous winner Nyla Carroll in the 44th annual run around the Lake.

Firefighter Brian Halford, who survived the blast at the Icepak Coolstore in Tamahere, completed the marathon walk in 6h 48m 49s.