1000 compete in Middle-earth Halfling marathon
Fantasy fans and distance running lovers met for the second-ever Middle-earth Halfling Marathon on Saturday afternoon.
The marathon sees around 3000 visitors and over 1000 participants ascend onto the Shire at the Hobbiton movie set in the heart of Waikato.
Whether it is the 21.1km Halfling Marathon or ‘Eleventy-first’ 11.1km track, attendees had the chance to explore otherwise hard-to-reach areas of the Matamata site. On Saturday the marathon took place for the second year running.
The marathon had been ‘‘a number of years’’ in the making, Shayne Forrest, general manager for tourism at Hobbiton said, before it was brought to life during the pandemic with the first event taking place in 2022.
‘‘It’s quite special for people to be able to get out there, deeper into Middle-earth and experience some of those more unexplored areas of the farm,’’ Forrest said. ‘‘People have the opportunity to run out there and see those locations for themselves.’’
Spanning 4.85 hectares of ‘‘rolling hills’’, the acclaimed film set is decorated with dozens of hobbit-themed fixtures. Staff try to ‘‘change it up’’ each year with various characters scattered amongst the course including elves, dwarves, horses, hobbits and full-faced prosthetic orcs.
‘‘It is a partnership between ourselves and our event partners ... we obviously have the knowledge around Middle-earth and how to do those X factor Middle-earth inspired events, and they have the expertise in running some pretty slick events.’’
The marathon attracts all walks of life with people often dressed head-to-toe in costumes inspired by the famed film trilogies.
A diverse range of participants take part from those who have never done running or walking events in their lives, to Olympians and ex-Olympians.
‘‘It’s something our team always looks forward to because there’s just a really different market that comes in,’’ Forrest said.
Hobbiton Movie Set Tours has managed to stay on its feet over the past three years. During the height of the pandemic restrictions the popular tourism attraction did have to scale down, cut staff and halt tours, but they were now gradually returning to normality, Forrest said.
The coming years were about ‘‘creating really special experiences’’ at the Hobbiton Movie set.