The focus on pre-race entries and the ease of online application brought another good crowd for the 2016 edition of the Pak'n Save Whanganui 3 Bridges Marathon to Taupo Quay on Saturday.
First-time organiser Christian Conder was confident they had cracked over 500 entries to match up with last year's event, which for the first time did not have a "walk-up" on the day, instead requiring all competitors to be signed up by midday Friday.
The course was the traditional 10.5km length for a lap along Somme Parade, across the Dublin St bridge and down along Anzac Parade to City Bridge, which was traversed back and forth to Putiki Drive, before crossing the Cobham Bridge and heading back along the riverside to Somme Parade.
With four laps to do, the standard prediction is about three hours from the 7.30am start for the full marathon, but Rotorua's ultramarathon veteran Brendon Keenan clicked in well under that mark at nearly 2h 55m, which was a good 20 minutes before a fellow competitor with a yellow bib number joined him.
"My personal best is 2h 48m, but that was in New Plymouth on a downhill circuit," said Keenan.