Emerson’s Dunedin Marathon has awarded its inaugural Ambassador’s Grant, originally envisioned for a single athlete, to a trio of competitors.
Race director Becs Adlam said choosing three recipients was not what they were initially thinking, but they were always open to all opportunities in the first year of the grant.
‘‘The decision aligned strongly with the intent and values of the Ambassador’s Grant and the club’s continued support of athletes in and around Otago,’’ Adlam said.
Michael Butler has been named the recipient of the Emerson’s Dunedin Marathon Ambassador’s Grant, securing mentorship from Aitken.
Two other candidates, Cameron Trewhitt and Bex Stanley will also receive support packages, including coaching, running shoes and race entry.
Butler said he was very happy when he found out he was successful with his application. ‘‘I wasn’t sure what the team were looking for and I acknowledged that I was pretty inexperienced.’’ Butler ran a half marathon several years ago. ‘‘All my mates were doing it so I joined up, but I ended up not training for it.
‘‘I ran one park run, so one 5k in about the three months leading up to it, and then just pushed through.’’
He is looking forward to tackling the full marathon this year with the backing of the award.
Race ambassador Mel Aitken said the judging panel had a tough time choosing from a great range of applicants.
‘‘It wasn’t an easy decision, which is why we ended up landing where we did, because it was such an opportunity to help more than one person, which was great,’’ Aitken said.
Butler had experience but needed assistance with his longer-term goals. ‘‘It’s having some really good structure to that and being able to help him with that structure,’’ she said.
Cameron Trewhitt ran his first marathon in Dunedin last year but wanted to improve his time. He had always enjoyed running, from primary through to high school, but had never received proper coaching.
‘‘It has always kind of been just dad takes us out for a run somewhere and we go and do it, try and beat our times,’’ Trewhitt said.
Aitken said Trewhitt had gained valuable knowledge during his first marathon last year.
‘‘In particular around his nutrition and being able to, again, provide some structure to what training and build up needs to be in order to get him in a better position to complete it next time,’’ Aitken said.
Bex Stanley ran a couple of half marathons about 15 years ago.
‘‘I hadn’t been running for ages,’’ Stanley said.
‘‘But last year I did a 10k with a friend and I just loved it and got back into it.’’
She was looking forward to being able to ‘‘fine-tune’’ her running and obtain specific training tips from Aitken.
She aims to step up to a full marathon this year.
‘‘I can run a half because I’ve done a couple just for fun.
‘‘So I know I can do that, so then I was like, why not try and do the full?’’
Aitken said all three athletes were enthusiastic and would benefit from formalised coaching.
‘‘Having probably more than one person means I can probably build my own little community of people that I can help mentor, you know.
‘‘But they can also sort of feed off each other as well,’’ Aitken said.
All three runners will be fitted with footwear from the Shoe Clinic, using modern techniques that include footscanning technology and gait assessment.
Adlam said the Caversham Harrier and Athletic Club, which owned the Dunedin Marathon, was not only supporting the trio, but had also provided just over $13,000 in grants to more than two dozen athletes.
That included $5500 distributed among eight athletes attending the Oceania Athletics Championships taking place in Darwin.
