Final finish line ahead for Bernie
Irrepressible Wellington athlete Bernie Portenski is in a hospice, where she’s busy planning her funeral.
Portenski, 67, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May – three days before the Rotorua Marathon, preventing her from running it for a 34th consecutive time.
She married long-term partner Peter Horan in October.
Cancer put her back in hospital last month, where she had the joy of seeing daughter MJ’s boyfriend, Tako, propose in front of close family.
An always-smiling, non-stop wisecracking runner who qualified for the 1992 Olympics, won three Rotorua Marathons, twice completed an Ironman and was 1998’s Wellingtonian Of The Year, Portenski went into the hospice this month. She is bedridden yet upbeat. She has things to do, she says. ‘‘Yes, I am quite busy, I’m kinda busy dying,’’ she laughs, saying that planning for an undetermined date has its problems.
‘‘You can’t plan anything in Wellington – barbecues, anything like that, dying – if you’ve got to get the right date, it’s not the place to be.’’
Even while ill, she made life better for her cancer ward colleagues in Wellington Hospital, by doing their hair. But despite all the boisterous encouragement she has given runners over four decades, she does not wish it in return. She asks for privacy so her family can be together. No visitors please.
She has booked a church for a private funeral service, and then a final visit to the home of athletics at Newtown Park for ‘‘my very dear running friends’’, where the hearse will drive through the park gates to her public memorial.
‘‘People are welcome to walk behind the hearse, jog behind the hearse or just look at the hearse. I feel it’s fitting; it’s a place that is very dear to my heart.’’
Portenski took up running as a drinking, smoking 30-year-old out to improve her life. And she did just that, setting a string of age-group records and all but making the Barcelona Olympics. She ran within the qualifying time but her dream was dashed by selectors, who thought her too old at 42. Hitting the qualifying mark remains her proudest moment.
‘‘I was really proud of that but, in saying that, I was very proud of my three Rotorua Marathon victories . . . that was a very special race for me. To win it three times was a bonus.’’
Her family, Peter, MJ and stepson Phillip, made Rotorua an annual pilgrimage.
As for failing to discover her talent until 30, no regrets there. ‘‘No . . . don’t look back. I’m probably looking back too much now; you should always look forward.’’