No fall was going to stop Marion | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

If ever an athlete deserved to put their feet up it's Marion Roberts.

Not only did she tackle the weekend's New Zealand 100km Road Running Championships in Taupo and claim the bronze medal, but the Rotorua Lakes City Athletic club runner did it the hard way.

After starting the 100km race, run in conjunction with the Great Lake Relay, at 3am in morning, 54-year-old Roberts ran through the pitch black guided only by a headlamp.

At times it was only the pitter patter of her own feet that kept her company but as the sun rose the supportive sound of spectators willed her on until disaster almost struck at 48km.

Losing her concentration for a moment, Roberts tripped and fell, lightly grazing her knees and elbows and bumping her head. Despite feeling a little dizzy, Roberts picked herself up and courageously battled her way around the rest of the course only to be pipped for the silver medal a mere 2km from the end by Lisa Lusskandl of Egmont Athletics.

"I was dumbfounded, she came out of nowhere and I did not have enough energy to sprint to the end," said Roberts after clocking an impressive 11 hours and 47 minutes.

"But I felt fabulous finishing. Like any long distance race the most important thing is to finish."

Carrie White of Wellington Scottish won the women's title in 9h 44m while the men's title went to Mark Bright of Auckland's Lynndale club who clocked 8h 8m after beating defending champion Graeme Butcher of Masterton by nearly an hour. Andrew Brown Of Valleys United was third in 9h 43m.

Roberts, who only took up running four years ago after being "pestered" by her daughter, has since completed umpteen half marathons and an astonishing 21 marathons - including the 2005 New York Marathon with her husband Owen.

But for the last three years she has thrived on completing the two person 100km race in a team (tackling 50km each). This year, however, that category was disbanded, so Roberts decided "it was 100km or nothing".

"You've got to continually mentally, positively reinforce yourself the whole way and for me, an extra motivation was not letting my three kids down as they wanted to go to the concert at the Blue Lake so I had to be finished in time to take them there."

After enjoying a relaxing 15km recovery walk yesterday, Roberts is already planning her next assault - this weekend's Cathay Pacific half marathon in Auckland.