A record breaking bonus is on offer for both the men and women in next year's Rotorua Marathon if the winner breaks the course record.
As well as winning the first prize of $4000, they will win an additional $25,000 if in the men's section the record of 2h 16m 5s is broken and in the case of the women if the record of 2h 37m 37s is broken.

However there is a proviso that the winners of both sections do not have a personal best time lower than the course record at the time of starting in the race.

Event manager Angela Salmon, in announcing the promotion, said that she appreciates the provision will exclude a number of New Zealand's top marathon runners from being eligible.

"This was a condition of the underwriting that we received to be able to provide this prize," said Salmon.

"The intention was not to make some ineligible and become disinterested, but to encourage and create interest as well as provide the incentive for up and coming potential elite marathoners to take part," she added.

This year's winner of the Lion Foundation Rotorua Marathon Scott Winton, who ran a time of 2h 25m 34s in April, would be eligible for the record breaking bonus.

Winton has a personal best time of 2h 17m 1s set in the London marathon last year and, provided he doesn't run faster than Paul Ballinger's 1988 Rotorua record in the Fukuoka marathon this weekend, has a chance to collect the purse.

Also 2004 Rotorua winner Tracey Clissold has the potential to race away with the offer to break the women's record. Clissold, on the comeback trail after injury requiring surgery, won the recent Auckland marathon. Her time in 2004 was 2h 43m 15s and she has a personal best of 2h 41m 57s achieved with victory in the 2004 Auckland event. The women's record was set by Nyla Carroll in 1994.

Entries for the 2007 Rotorua marathon, to be run on 28 April are now being taken, with early entries closing on 23 March 2007.
A feature of next year's race is that the start and finish will be back at the traditional area of the Government Gardens, and the headquarters will be in the new Energy Events Centre, recently constructed behind the Sportsdrome.