Runners only concerned with times gone by | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

It was a slow stroll down memory lane for 84-year-old Kay Taylor.

The former Rotorua speedster was one of about 200 runners and cyclists who gathered in Rotorua to celebrate the 75th Jubilee of athletics and cycling in the Rotorua region.

Taylor and his wife, 78-year-old Nola, joined a group of walkers and meandered their way through the Redwoods over the weekend.

It was a chance for Taylor, the oldest member of the club, to reminisce about the early years.

"There are not many of my generation around these days.

"I can remember there were three of us and we used to come out in the forest and we would go as far as the Rotoma hills.

"I don't think I'd be able to do that these days," Taylor, a World War II airforce veteran, said.

Taylor was the official time keeper for the Rotorua Marathon for 40 years and before the computer era Nola would write down the competitors' placings and times.

"Back in the old days we didn't have computers or electronic timing.

"I used to write down all the times and names," Nola said.

While he watched more than four decades of his home town marathon, Taylor never managed to run in one himself.

One runner revelling in the jubilee celebrations was Colin Smyth who had run 42 Rotorua marathons.

"This is brilliant just catching up with people I haven't seen for 30 years is great.

"Back then they were skinny now some of them are fat and hard to recognise," Smyth said.

The winner of the first official Fletcher Marathon in 1965 was Dave Heine.

Heine was a member of the Rotorua Athletics Club at the time and remembers the race being very informal.

"I wasn't a marathon runner, I was doing miles and half mile races and it was a training run."

Back in those days the course was run in a anti-clockwise direction which Heine reckons would be easier for runners.

"It was definitely the highlight of my marathon career," Heine said.

The engineer, now living in Hamilton, still does a bit of jogging but admits if he can run for 30 minutes "well it's a good day".

Former road cyclist Eddie Maddern remembered the "good old days" of three-geared road bikes.

"Gears are superfluous. It's who is in the saddle that counts," the 76-year-old said.

"We didn't know anything about this mountainbiking. There was nothing like it in my day."

The Lake City Athletic Club was formed in 1991 with the amalgamation of the Ngongotaha Track Club, Sulphur City Runners, Rotorua Joggers, Rotorua Athletic Club and Rotorua Amateur Athletics Cycling and Harrier club.

The Jubilee weekend activities included a formal dinner at Skyline Skyrides, a mix and mingle to look at memorabilia and a run and walk through the Redwoods.

Jubilee committee member Pat Smyth said the weekend had been the result of 18 months' planning.

There had been a flurry of late starters wanting to be part of the celebrations.

"The committee has met every month for the last year and to see everyone here has made it all worthwhile."