Students run a marathon with Olympians

Students at Tāhunanui School have completed a marathon with Olympians while their peers cheered them across the finish-line.

Twenty-one students completed their final lap of the Rod Dixon KiDSMARATHON on the school’s back field last Thursday.

KiDSMARATHON sees students run a marathon over the course of 10 weeks, logging runs in a booklet until the final mile is completed.

That final mile was run at the school alongside the only two runners from Nelson to ever compete at the Olympic Games, Rod Dixon and Julian Matthews.

Rod, who went to Tāhunanui School as a boy, went on to win a bronze medal at the 1972 Olympics and then won the New York City Marathon in 1983. He founded KiDSMARATHON, which has seen hundreds of thousands of children around the world complete their own marathons.

He was joined on the final mile by Julian Matthews, who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 1500m event.

Tāhunanui School principal Barbara Bowen says the students were “very enthusiastic”.

“It’s been a tremendous effort, they’ve done this all in their own time. They had to get it signed off by someone each day and some of the children have run further than a marathon. One boy has done three marathons in the 10 weeks, we have not been able to hold him back.”

Also running the final mile was three of the Rod Dixon team competing at this year’s New York City Marathon, to mark 40 years since Rod’s win. They included Nelson mayor Nick Smith, Nelson Weekly publisher Andrew Board, and Kim Ngawhika.

The team, which also includes Lester Binns, is raising money to help other local primary school children complete the KiDSMARATHON. So far, the team has raised more than $15,000 ahead of the marathon on 5 November.

Nick says with just a few weeks until the New York City Marathon, watching the students complete their own gives him extra motivation.

“It was extra exciting to see the first group of Tāhunanui School students complete the Rod Dixon KiDSMARATHON and you could feel the inspiration passing on to a new generation of runners.”

He says the New York running team has been training hard.

“The body is sore but the soul is stronger,” he says.

“I’m nervous [for the run], I’ve been able to get to 28km in training and feeling fitter than I ever have in my life, but I’m in awe of athletes like Rod who can run that far at pace.”

More than 50,000 people will run the New York City Marathon, with more than 2 million people watching.

To donate to the cause so more children in Nelson and Tasman can complete their own KiDSMARATHON, go here.