Daniel Balchin (Canterbury) credited a home-cooked meal of roast lamb and apple pie with ice cream for his success in the half-marathon section of the Cadbury-sponsored Dunedin Marathon yesterday.
''It kept me full of energy,'' he said.
Balchin (23), an engineering student, put daylight second to win in a time of 1hr 10min 31sec.
Despite almost being directed the wrong way, Balchin was not put off his early pace.
''I'm a bit of a novice at this distance,'' he said.
''So I went out a little bit harder than I should have and suffered towards the end.''
Balchin started at a pace of 3min 12sec per kilometre and maintained this until about the halfway mark.
He slowly drifted off his pace as he hit a swirling harbour breeze but he battled through it, feeding off support from spectators lining the course.
''They gave me a boost when I went running past them. But that last hill was a bit of a killer. I dropped off the pace a little with that. I just paid the price for my early pace, I guess.''
Balchin specialises in 1500m and steeplechase events on the track over summer and is the national steeplechase champion.
Last weekend, he won the bronze medal in the national 10km road championship in Dunedin, and three weeks ago, he won the 10km Clyde to Alexandra road race.
Balchin will take things easy over the next week before building up for the national road relay, in which he will be a member of a strong New Brighton Olympic Club team.
Shireen Crumpton recorded back-to-back victories in the open women's section of the half-marathon, shaking off fatigue after running in a Noumea event in 28degC three weeks ago.
''I was a wee bit unsure as to how my form would go,'' she said.
''It takes a fair bit of recovery after a marathon.''
Crumpton, who holds the half-marathon course record of 1hr 15min, clocked a steady 1hr 23min 41sec to hold out a strong challenge from Louisa Andrew (1hr 24min 6sec) and Canterbury's Hannah Newbould (1hr 25min 32sec).
Crumpton, a double marathon champion on the course, had picked up a niggling hamstring in recent times but was untroubled by it yesterday. She said alterations had made for a more technical course and possibly had a bearing on slowing it down a little.
She will now prepare for the Auckland Marathon in early November and the Kepler Challenge in December.
