Payne had been battling a virus, and the wet start yesterday may have only added to his misery had he not bounced back to full health.
Along with Dunedin's Romain Mirosa, Payne led the 214-strong marathon field battling into a blustery wind and persistent drizzle.
''It was a pretty tough first 25km,'' Payne said.
''Into town, it was a headwind all the way, which made it pretty hard. But on the other side of things, it makes coming home a lot easier.''
Payne ran through the first half of the course with Mirosa and the pair went through the halfway stage, just after Glenfalloch, in 1hr 19min.
At the 25km mark, Payne decided to put the hammer down and pulled away from Mirosa, crossing the finish line at Watson Park in 2hr 34min 47sec.
''It [the weather] was not ideal, but I wanted to run the second half faster, so that made things a lot easier.''
Payne added that the time was a little bit quicker than he was planning to run, with the Auckland marathon on November 2 in his sights.
After winning the national marathon title on the Auckland course in 2012, Payne is keen to put to rest some demons he picked up on the course last year.
He wanted to use yesterday's marathon as a good hit-out over 40km leading into the Auckland event, but had considered moving down to the half after his illness.
''There was a question mark as to whether I did the half. But I'm glad I did the full. I felt better than I expected and manage to run a good time with a pretty controlled effort.''
Payne was also pleased how fresh he felt at the finish. Despite the wet weather that swept the first half of the Cadbury-sponsored race, he was turning the legs over at a rate of 3min 45sec per kilometre, and said it actually felt quicker.
''It was pretty awful,'' he said of the run down the peninsula road.
''I usually quite enjoy looking out over the harbour, but you couldn't see much of it today. I just put my head down and fought through it.'He added that he was able to lift this tempo once the course turned for the run down to Port Chalmers.
''I managed to pick it up without feeling like I was exerting too much more effort,'' he said.
''The walkway is fantastic. It's a shame I can't train on it, being in Auckland now.''
Before the Auckland marathon, Payne plans to run the Melbourne half-marathon next month, where he is targeting a sub-68min time.
After a battle with defending champion Mel Aitken until the 30km mark, Sarah Chisnall pulled away to record a convincing victory and pick up her fourth open women's title on the course in 2hr 57min sec.
Chisnall was rapt to have finished under the 3hr mark. After a horrific run of injury, she was expecting a ''personal worst'' of something beyond the 3hr barrier.
Third in the open women's section, in a personal best time in just her third marathon, was Dunedin's Donna Young, in 3hr 15min 29sec.
