Olympics: Rillstone confident of lasting the distance in marathon

While Liza Hunter-Galvan engaged in a marathon-like legal battle to compete at the Beijing Olympics, New Zealand's leading long distance athlete has been quietly going about preparations for an event she virtually stumbled upon.

There was never any conjecture about Nina Rillstone's suitability to run tomorrow's endurance event (11.30am NZT) through the Chinese capital, despite the 42.2km task equating to just her fourth marathon.

The 32-year-old from Auckland, who has divided her time between Wanaka, Colorado and New York State in the lead-up to the toughest race on the Olympic schedule, also experienced disappointment with Athletics New Zealand selectors.

Rillstone had her heart set on representing New Zealand at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but could not quite meet the qualifying time in the 10,000-metres.

But rather than let all those miles of preparation and training count for nought, the waifish Rillstone switched focus to the marathon.

"I didn't want to waste all the work I had done leading up to that so I decided to do the Nagano Marathon in April (2006). I had such a really good experience in Japan, I knew I had found my distance," she said.

Rillstone's finished third in a New Zealand marathon debut record time of two hours 29 minutes 46 seconds, the fastest time by a Kiwi woman in 20 years.

Her affection with the marathon strengthened after a seventh placing in New York and in her last outing -- the world championships in Osaka, Japan, she was 13th in 2 hr 33min 58secs.

Rillstone believes the heat and humidity she experienced in Japan gave her an insight into what she can expect tomorrow, not that she was overly concerned about air quality.

Much has been written about how the marathon runners might wilt in Beijing's notorious smog but the climate was very much water off a duck's back for Rillstone, who has spent the last two days under blue skies.

"I've got plenty of other things to worry about. I'm not predisposed to respiratory troubles in any way and I've had reasonably good racing in humidity to date," she said.

"I haven't struggled too much with it. Osaka was a good test and I felt I handled it well."

Rillstone, who has gradually taken on longer distances since starting out as a 1500m runner, has spent the last two months in the United States at altitude in Boulder -- a popular training base for endurance athletes.

New Zealand running legend Lorraine Moller is also living in Colorado and has been a source of inspiration for Rillstone.

"Back in the day when I had just discovered running, I read about her and the road racing scene that Lorraine had been a part of," Rillstone said.

"She was obviously doing very well. I can remember thinking that if my running continued and progressed that it would be a pretty neat experience to have opportunities like she had.

Rillstone has spent time with Moller, who competed in four consecutive Olympics starting in 1984. The highlight was her bronze medal race at Barcelona in 1992.

Rillstone did not expect to match Moller's achievement, saying a top-10 finish would be the equivalent of making the podium given this early stage of her marathon career.

"If I could make the top 10 it would be pretty outstanding, but I'd need to have a pretty outstanding day."