Buller Marathon

Post date: Feb 21, 2016 2:34:25 AM

After years of wanting Val finally got to run the Buller Marathon, and it was everything she had hoped for. Val hoped to run a comfortable 3:45 but knew the course to be more difficult than one would expect when following a river.

The start was 8 ks away from Berlin's cafe where we had spent the night so she knew the first part of the course was undulating to say the least, therefore she ran well within herself and when she returned to the start line (16km) she looked comfortable.  It was around this time the sun broke through and the day began to heat up.

At halfway Val was on 1:50:20 and had "picked off" a few runners who had set of faster than her. She was well into her running now and despite the hilly terrain was covering the ground easily.

At 32 km the "long hill " began and if Val was reach her goal of 3:45 she would have to do something special as the sun was hot, the course was testing and she was just outside her target time.

With 7 km to go the 3:45 looked to be a distinct possibility but Val couldn't afford to ease off. 

5Km to go Val was running as quickly as she had done at any time in the race.

3km to go and she was making good time  and was catching runners who had been away ahead of her .

2km and in to town Val stepped up the pace, and as she entered the park past a lady who had lead her for the entire race by a good 250 metres. She sprinted to the line and finished with a creditable 3:43:36 and First place in the women's 55 - 64 sage group; not bad for a 61 year old ultra runner.