GUERNSEY could soon have another top distance athlete in its ranks. New Zealander Luke Walton, who has just turned 31, is planning to join the Guernsey Triathlon Club and GIAAC shortly.
And given his best half-marathon time is 1hr 15min. and he recently completed the New York Marathon in a highly creditable 2-46-12 despite cramps, he seems set to give the island’s best distance athletes a run for their money.
He already has his heart set on competing in Easter’s half-marathon in Guernsey and beating his best time and possibly participating in some of the other races in the series.
‘I definitely think I could beat it - the 1-15 I did was on a hard course,’ he said.
‘I’m also quite keen on triathlon and I’m hoping to do some events next year as well as the half-marathon.’
He started thinking about his first marathon at the end of last year, having not run for three years.
‘I wanted a big goal to get motivated to run again. Although I had done a lot of running in the past, I had never done a marathon before,’ he said.
‘I find it [running] quite relaxing and I like racing to push myself. Over here I have found there are some quite good guys I have been running with on a Tuesday.’
He built up his training for the marathon from struggling through 20-minute runs to five or six a week and up to two hours long.
After several months and losing nearly two stone, he felt fit again.
But having looked forward to summer runs, he was hampered by injury and had to stop for more than two months.
He was quite relieved to make it to the start line in New York - feeling in really good shape.
‘The race was fantastic, just to be there at the start, with nearly 40,000 people,’ he recalled.
Walton found the first half of the race a lot of fun - recording a time of 1-18-27 at the halfway mark.
‘After 15 miles and running over two massive bridges my legs started cramping up. The race wasn’t such fun after that and instead of focusing on time, it was just a struggle to finish,’ he admitted.
‘Because I was not able to produce long runs [due to the injury setback] I may have been caught out. I was well on pace for about 10 minutes faster and should have been under my target of 2-40. When I cramped up, I was just happy to get through. Given what happened, 2-46 was pretty good.
‘After running as much as possible and trying to limit walking, I finally made it to Central Park,’ he said.
He noticed there were a lot of people cheering for a man called Lance - not realising initially it was former multiple Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Walton saw a media motorbike go past and, despite feeling awful, pride took over and as he did not want to be seen on TV, he ran as hard as he could to get ahead of the bike and managed the last two miles quickly enough to stay ahead of the media circus.
‘My legs started cramping up straight after the finish which was agony, but the satisfaction of having made it was worth it. I am even keen to give it another go next year and hopefully not cramp up and run a lot faster,’ he said.
He arrived in Guernsey from Wellington in April and is currently working for Financial Risk Manage-ment at Trafalgar Court as an associate in client services.
But he is hopeful of staying in the island for another couple of years.
‘I’m returning to be a serious runner,’ he said.
He was quite serious at school, has completed several triathlons since his first marathon and now has the running bug back.
‘I’m now looking to join the triathlon club and athletics club,’ said Walton.
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