The marae-to-marae relay looks set to become a regular fixture for Te Arawa.
Te Papa Tākaro o Te Arawa CEO, Stephen Te Moni, said this month’s relay featured 32 marae teams with some 30 people of all ages in each one.
“That’s nearly 1,000 runners or walkers who took part in the event,” Te Moni said.
The relay had been an annual event in the mid-1990s but was halted due to the high cost of traffic management, which cost up to $70,000.
Teaming up with this year’s Red Stag Rotorua Marathon set the stage for a new approach cost-wise, and how it might be run in the future.
The relay started at 6:30 am with Te Arawa kōeke (elders) leading off a 600-metre ‘fun run’ from Te Papaiōuru marae to Te Roro-o-te-rangi marae at Ōhinemutu.
The formal start then began at 7 am - an hour earlier than the marathon, although all runners and walkers followed the same 42-kilometre course and shared the finish line.
Relay teams tagged in new runners at each of the 11 marae en route, with sensors on the batons and flags recording the times of each team.
Te Moni wanted people of all ages to continue taking part, not just sports people or those fit enough to last the distance.
“At the end of the day, a person’s pride in their iwi is a good strategy to get them moving,” he said.
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