Race record goes in 40th edition of Half Marathon

The creation of a new race record highlighted the 40^th running of the Woodbourne Half Marathon at the base on Sunday.

Nationally-ranked triathlon exponent Gus Marfell underlined his running strength on his way to a time of one hour 13 minutes 48 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 1.14.04 set by Ian Thomas in 2008. The next fastest was Jeremy McKenzie’s 2012 effort of 1:14:23.

Gus finished around six minutes in front of second-placed Mark Kennedy (1.20.02) with Chris Cartwright (1.23.03) finishing third. There were 61 runners in the annual event.

The winner said he had competed in the 10km run before but never the Half, and admitted he was spent when he crossed the finish line.

He is in the off-season for his triathlon endeavours and relished the opportunity to compete in some local events.

“It is just good to see where I am at … the course was a lot tougher than I thought. The first half is uphill, kinda false flats, then you have some off-road and a couple of hills that I didn’t expect. That was probably the toughest part of the course and from there it was a bit of a slog home.

“I blew up with a couple of k to go and just survived over the last two or three k,” Gus added.

Thirty athletes also turned out for the Half Hybrid event, which was won by Paul Schultz in 1.59.22, the only participant to finish under two hours.

Linda King completed the Half Walk first, in a time of 2.38.03.

Along with the Half Marathon events, Fun Runs were held over 10km and 5km distances.

Ed Massey won the 10km in a field of 30, in a time of 43.07, from Nikita Gane (45.55) and Zeke Hoskins (48.13).

Cullum Rayner came home first in the 5km run, contested by 40, his time of 19.50 shading Corban McLennan (20.50) and Arlo Grogan (21.22).