Marathon runner puts head down for record long haul
Graeme Tindall is on the cusp of a triple century – he has just knocked off his 299th marathon.
The Masterton runner’s obsession has taken him around the world, sometimes unwittingly being thrust into international events that rocked the news.
The 49-year-old has just completed the T42 Central Plateau trail marathon. A marathon in Rotorua next weekend is scheduled to be his 300th.
If he completes it, he will become the youngest New Zealander to hit the mark and just the fifth in our history.
He has had to do it while keeping an eye on his glucose/insulin levels – he has type 1 diabetes.
It was never his plan to rack up so many epic runs, but what began as a personal challenge has turned into a lifestyle.
The Auckland Marathon in October, 2000, was his first crack at the distance and it took him 10 marathons to attain his goal of 3hr 30min.
His partner, Rebecca Edgecombe, is also a dedicated marathon runner, joining Tindall at many of the same events.
The Wairarapa marathon in 2013 was Tindall’s 100th and in 2016 he reached his 200th again on his home Masterton course.
‘‘If Covid hadn’t come around last year I was on track to do my 300th around October, but that obviously didn’t happen,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m not as fit now as I was in the early 2000s when I started running marathons, so it takes me a lot longer to complete them now.’’
Since then, he’s run 125 marathons in 10 countries, many in Australia, but also some of the biggest events in the world such as the Chicago, Berlin, London, New York, Tokyo and Boston marathons.
Tindall was only a few hundred metres from completing the Boston Marathon in 2013 when it was hit by terrorist bombings in which three people were killed and hundreds injured.
One of the advantages of having done so many of the 42.2km races was that he could deal with the notoriously tough last section with confidence.
‘‘I would normally be quite strong around that point because mentally you’re used to the challenge.’’