Glen Ferguson trains for the Christchurch Marathon at Logan
Park yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
A cool head and an ability not to get sucked into a fast
start are the key ingredients Dunedin's Glen Ferguson will be
taking into the Christchurch Marathon tomorrow.
Competitors in the 10km, half marathon and full marathon will
all leave from the Kilmore St start-finish area together at
9am.
About 500 will take part in the full marathon in a total
field of more than 4500.
Ferguson (44), a Dunedin patternmaker, is mindful of running
at what he considers a sensible pace.
Ferguson has run with considerable success over the past two
decades.
His marathon career started on the 100-year-old Riverton to
Invercargill course, with mixed success.
But it has been the Buller Gorge and Dunedin marathons in
which he has prospered.
He won the Buller event outright in 1995 in 2hrs 32min, and
although he won the senior title again in 1996, finished
second to "a wily old veteran from Auckland".
He won the first of three Otago Marathon titles on the Moro
course in 1997, for his best time on the course of 2hrs 29min
5sec.
"It was a shocker that day," he said.
"We had to run into a strong southwest wind for the first
25km, with horizontal rain."
Although Ferguson has contested the half marathon section of
the Christchurch event five times for a personal best of
67min 56sec, his attempt tomorrow will be his first in the
full marathon. "I'm looking to going into the race with a
cool head and not get sucked in by pace of the shorter
distance runners," he said.
"It's all about knowing your ability and sticking to it."
A feature of Ferguson's build-up has been his first attempt
at following a Lydiard programme.
"It's got me where I am at the moment," he said.
Aside from his marathon success, Ferguson won the masters
title at the New Zealand mountain running championships last
year and went on to finish 17th in his age group at the world
mountain running championships in Austria.
His strength on the hills has also helped him finish fourth
overall and win the masters section of the Kepler Challenge
for the past two years.
His best time for the 62km event is 5hrs 23sec.
During the past 18 months, he has been in superb form in
track events, breaking the Otago 40-44 age-group 5000m record
three times.
His best performance came in February this year when he
recorded 15min 30sec for the distance, while just before
Christmas he broke the Otago age-group record in the 3000m,
recording 9min 4sec.
He is also the Otago masters champion in cross-country and
the 10km road race.
Other runners from Dunedin may also feature tomorrow.
Sue Cuthbert will be looking to improve on last year's sixth
place in the women's section of the marathon, and in the half
marathon section, Shireen Crumpton and Luke Hurring are among
early favourites.
In the associated 10km, Courtney Quirin will be aiming to
leave New Zealand on a high note and finish her final race in
New Zealand with a gold-medal performance.
Quirin has been a part of the Otago athletics scene for the
past two years and her departure back to the United States
toward the end of next month, will surely leave a void on the
local scene.
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