Nina Rillstone was thrilled to learn on Wednesday she had been confirmed as a member of New Zealand's eight-strong athletics team bound for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August.
The good news came exactly two years since she raced her first marathon in Nagano, Japan
(placing third and setting a New Zealand debut marathon record of 2hr 29min), and one day after her 33rd birthday.
"It's been a big week,'' Rillstone smiled as she relaxed at home.
The former Dunedin athlete has lived and trained in Wanaka for the past two years when not training in the endurance sport high-altitude haven of Boulder, Colorado.
Rillstone has been a keen runner since a pupil at Otago Girls High School and picked a half-marathon for her first competition, aged 16, running it with her parents.
"I ran it considerably slowly, I must say, compared to now. I've got the New Zealand record for that now,'' Rillstone said, laughing.
Rillstone enjoys a low profile in the multisport town of Wanaka, where she lives with her mother, Gwenda Ross.
Nevertheless, the whole town is familiar with the sight of her slight frame floating along the lakeside and river trails as she clocks up 160km a week in training.
Rillstone describes herself as a loyal Otago girl, despite having lived in Wellington and then Auckland between 1998 and 2006.
Only in the past two years has she been training full-time, supported by a 2006 AMP Scholarship, a 2007 performance-enhancement grant from Sport and Recreation New Zealand and
her family.
"I did well at high school and at regional level and, although I had injuries at university, I never stopped running. But it hasn't been until I found marathon that I could say my Olympic aspirations had come to fruition,'' she said.
Her first attempt at the marathon in Japan in 2006 remains her fastest time and the former leading track runner's goal, after qualifying for Beijing, is to break the New Zealand
record set by Alison Roe in 1981 of 2hr 26min 46sec.
Lorraine Moller, with whom Rillstone stays at Boulder, has the second-best performance by a New Zealand woman in the 42km distance: 2hr 28min 17sec, set in 1986.
Rillstone regards Moller as an inspiration and met her through mutual friends about two years ago.
She will return to Colorado for her third season in about six weeks' time, but plans to first spend five weeks in Auckland with coach John Bowden.
Bowden will join her at Boulder further into her programme before Rillstone spends a month training at sea level in New York state.
She will then join the rest of the athletics team in Hong Kong in August and plans to slip quietly into Beijing five days before her race, missing the opening ceremony.Rillstone visited Beijing for five days last year after the world championships in Japan and drove over the marathon
course, beginning in Tiananmen Square and finishing at the Bird's Nest Stadium.
"It's a flat course with what I'd call reasonably uninspiring scenery. It is very city-like, industrial. It doesn't have the skyline of Manhattan. But it's not as if we are there to admire the scenery and I know on race day there will be so many people there cheering and waving flags,'' she said.
Rillstone will acclimatise in Hong Kong for the heat and humidity and feels fortunate to have experienced similar race conditions before, in Osaka last year.
But nothing can prepare the athletes for the pollution. It is for that reason Rillstone has chosen to miss the opening, although she accepts the city has done a lot to try to address the problems and she has heard the smog may not be as much of a problem as at present.
Rillstone has undergone respiratory screening to identify any potential problems and been given a clean bill of health.
"I have never had asthma. The way I am viewing it, everyone in the race is up against the same conditions so I don't feel any more disadvantaged.''
Rillstone goes to China with the marathon as her focus. She feels unable to speak about the
Tibetan conflict without gaining more knowledge and giving it some careful consideration, but she does expect security to be tight.
With just one more week in Wanaka before embarking on her roundabout journey to Beijing, Rillstone has a lot on her plate.
"I am settled in Wanaka and really dread leaving because it is such a wonderful base for training. But I am really excited about being on the road again,'' she said. Rillstone plans to race the Christchurch half-marathon at the beginning of June and compete in a 15km race in Utica, New York state, in July.
Vital statistics
Born: United Kingdom, April 15, 1975.
Raised and educated: Dunedin
University: University of Otago, 1993-97, graduating with a double degree in physical education and commerce (marketing).
Career: Information technology and data analyst.
Lives: Half of each year in Wanaka and Boulder, Colorado.
Family: Mother Gwenda Ross, Wanaka; father Dougal Rillstone, Dunedin; sister Bridget Rillstone,
Auckland.
Athletics coach: John Bowden, Auckland.
Athletics highlights 2001: Won New Zealand 1500m and 3000m titles.
2004: Won the NZ 3000m and 5000m titles.
2005: Won Christchurch SBS half-marathon (setting New Zealand record of 70min 49sec).
2006: Third Nagano Marathon, Japan (setting NZ debut marathon record of 2hr 29min).
2006: Seventh New York Marathon (qualifying for 2008 Olympics)
2007: Third New York half-marathon (setting New Zealand record of 70min 35sec).
2007: 13th World Track and Field Championships, Osaka, Japan (repeating Olympic qualification).
