Having to cope with blindness for the past 6 years, Pascoe (32) was running her 13th marathon on the Dunedin course.
Yet despite a heavy sea fog sweeping the course and a nagging northeasterly coming off the harbour, hindering progress along the cycleway on the run towards Port Chalmers, Pascoe still managed to complete perhaps her most memorable marathon in a personal-best time by more than 3min.
"Look at all these people here. They’ve been fantastic today," she said of her guides from Achilles International.
"I was probably running too fast," she laughed.
"The road felt awesome. It was an awesome day out."
Pascoe added that the race seemed to go "so fast, except for the last 5km".
She was full of praise for guides Andrew Reynolds (Dunedin), Dani Nicolson (Dunedin), Katy Aitkinson (Dunedin) and Mel Henderson (Queenstown). For Reynolds, Nicolson and Henderson it was their first time as guides.
"They were fantastic. Naturals," she said.
"The atmosphere was awesome. Like on the road in Dunedin everyone is friendly," she said.
Pascoe was congratulated by Judy Brock at the finish who said that Pascoe "just powered past her".
Pascoe said her time had set the bar for the Invercargill event in November.
Other marathon highlights. —
● Mike Stewart (Wellington), contested his 542nd marathon.
● Paul Knight (Blenheim) contested his 97th. Knight plans to notch up his 100th at the historic Athens event on November 13.
● Stuart Hughes (Melbourne), who was born in Dunedin 45 years ago, returned to the city to contest the Dunedin event yesterday as a bucket list event.
● A regular in the event, Dave McLean had just found his legs again after contesting the 160km Naseby Water Race two weeks ago.
"I thought my arse was going to fall off up Roseneath Hill," he said.
● Michael Gray (19) is probably better known in local swimming circles, but yesterday knew how to hurt when he completed his first marathon in 5hr 2min.
