{"id":1017,"date":"2014-05-19T20:08:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T20:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2014-05-21T11:57:31","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T11:57:31","slug":"wreford-wins-huntly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/news\/wreford-wins-huntly","title":{"rendered":"Sam Wreford wins Huntly Half Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sam<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Wreford of Timaru travelled north for a training run and in the process ran out a clear winner of the annual Huntly half marathon yesterday.<\/p>\n

The 31 year old led throughout and finished in a career best 1:06:41, nearly five minutes clear of Samuel Murphy of Townsville. He was 46 seconds faster than his second placing to Kenyan Kip Kemei at Huntly in 2012.<\/p>\n

Wreford said that the conditions were ideal, cool with patches of fog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good solid hit out before the marathon in Christchurch in two weeks. I wanted to see where my shape is and get a bit of an indication,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was injured after last year\u2019s Auckland marathon (which he won in 2:18:57) so that took out about three months of training. I was going to the Boston marathon but that wasn\u2019t to be. Training has since gone well and I ran just under 30 minutes for 10km last weekend in Timaru,\u201d said Wreford.<\/p>\n

He is not dismissing having a crack at the New Zealand cross country title which he won in Hamilton in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to turn up and challenge that cross country especially being in Christchurch,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Murphy said that he was pleased with his time of 1:11:27 which he was using as a training run for the Cairns Ironman in three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from Townsville I felt the cold this morning and had to do a bit of a longer warm-up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got the Cairns Ironman and hopefully Kona after that now I know that my running is working,\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasha Daniels of Auckland was third in 1:14:51 Corey Hinde of Hamilton fourth in 1:16:55 and Auckland\u2019s Gavin Stevens (58) fifth in 1:17:18.<\/p>\n

New Zealand 10,000m track champion Lydia O\u2019Donnell from North Harbour Bays won the women\u2019s half marathon in a PB 1:17:05 by nearly seven minutes faster than Rotorua\u2019s Sue Crowley. Kovo Kowalewski of Hamilton was third in 1:25:22.<\/p>\n

It was the first time for O\u2019Donnell in Huntly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t run a half in about three years and I went out a bit fast, so I pulled back and stuck behind the guys. I went through the 10km in 36:50 and I felt really good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 23 year old said that she was lucky to be running in a big race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just pumped myself up the hills trying to stay with the guys. I\u2019ve run at Kerikeri and the Auckland half and I did today\u2019s race for a bit of mileage for the track season and more 10,000 metres,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell\u2019s previous best was 1:17:25 in winning the 2009 Kerikeri Half.<\/p>\n

Crowley was in awe of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t match that one at the front, she went so fast. I don\u2019t know if it is inspiring or depressing \u2013 I\u2019ll go with inspiring,\u201d said Cowley who improved four minutes on her time last year.<\/p>\n

Jonny McKee of Pakuranga won the 10km in 32:09, coming two weeks after winning the half marathon in Rotorua in 1:07:48.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was still feeling the effects of that today. It is a good start to the season so hopefully there is more to come. I\u2019m getting the mileage up for once without getting injured which is nice,\u201d said McKee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a good go at the Auckland and New Zealand cross country champs, there\u2019s some good runners around so it will be pretty tough, I\u2019m in the 35 age category now but I will do one more year as a senior and give it everything I can as my last time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ryan McAlister of Wellington was second in 32:38 and Steve Rees-Jones of Hamilton third in 32:40. Kirsten Milne of Hamilton won the women\u2019s 10km in 39:39.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Wreford of Timaru travelled north for a training run and in the process ran out a clear winner of the annual Huntly half marathon yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,8,129,1],"tags":[323,454,340],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-featured","category-half","category-news","tag-323","tag-huntly-half","tag-sam-wreford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sam.Wreford.jpg?fit=600%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}