A moving moment at 9pm when, in the darkness, a floodlit piper appears on top of the main stand to play a poignant lament. This is followed by the lighting of candles around the track for those who have passed on.
There are also impromptu sing-alongs and a rousing haka, and you meet some interesting people. I met a 16-year-old lad called Paerangi, part of a group from Wanganui City College. He had a nan who had beaten breast cancer; another who had survived it only to succumb to a brain tumour.
We ran a few laps together. He started at noon on Saturday and had done 115 laps when we parted company, his aim to complete 500 by the noon Sunday finish. He was young and fit.
If you're out there, Pae, did you make 500? Let me know, bro.