"From concept and inception through to successful delivery was just so rewarding," says Dave Beeche, who was then running an event company, Lagardere, out of Auckland.
Beeche, who’s nowadays RealNZ CEO, recalls then-Tourism New Zealand CEO Kevin Bowler asking, "why isn’t there a marathon in Queenstown?"
"I said, ‘I don’t know, that’s a really good question, I’ll look at that’."
During his research he met then-Queenstown Trails Trust CEO Kaye Parker.
"She looked me in the eye and said, ‘over my dead body will you put a trail marathon on my trails’.
"Anyway, over the course of several more meetings and coffees and stuff, we cracked a deal."
That deal saw a portion of entry fees going to the trust for trail maintenance — an amount that came to almost $28,000 in the first year, 2014.
That year, Beeche says their "stretch target" was 1200 runners — in fact they had to cap entries at 6000.
He puts it down to thinking differently about a marathon, "and not wanting to just replicate another road marathon that was measured to within an inch of its life, and all about competition".
"The whole idea was to do something that was all about completion, making it more inclusive and beautiful."
Having Air NZ on board as main sponsor also created awareness of the event, he adds.
The inaugural event was marred by a storm which saw about 30 runners being treated for mild hypothermia, but Beeche says "it gave people a war story to tell".
"I think what saved us was the next day was the most beautiful Queenstown day you could imagine."
Beeche believes the event’s whole-of-community approach contributes to its success, whether it’s the encouragement it gives people to get fit to run it, the extensive number of volunteers, or how it was timed for the tourism off-season.
