For many years as the official timekeeper, Mr Hill has been a familiar face at the start and finish lines of Dunedin Marathons.
After starting the race at Portobello he would "shoot back into town" to start the half-marathon, then get ready with his stopwatch to capture competitors times at the finish line.
In his "trusty old ute" Mr Hill also drove around the course map laying markers and signs for the race.
"I’d put out cones and signs saying ‘so many k’s to the finish’, that sort of thing," Mr Hill said.
Using a stopwatch connected to a small portable printer, he would keep careful watch as runners and walkers crossed the finish line, printing final times for each competitor.
"I’ve got my head down most of the time."
Runners tended to be reasonably spaced out when they got close to the finish line, but walkers were a challenge.
"Walkers all come in a bunch generally, about seven or eight, so you’ve got to click that stopwatch pretty quick to get them all in."
As the marathon became bigger it was more of a challenge to keep up, and his small printer showed its limitations.
"The problem with this is we are only able to take 600 printouts, and when you have got about 2000 in a race you’ve got to change the paper over."
This year a different system would use a radio-frequency identification tag attached to each competitor number.
This was able to identify and track each competitor from start to finish and deliver computerised results.
But Mr Hill’s trusty stopwatch and his keen eye was not quite being retired.
He would still be officiating at the end of the race shute at Emerson's Brewery to show participants out.
And although he was no longer starting the full marathon, he would be starting all the other races this year.
Helping with the marathon and being around athletes had kept him feeling full of life.
"I’m 82 now, or supposed to be, I don’t feel it."
"It has been part of my life for so long, 60 odd years ... it keeps you young, it really does."
Dunedin Marathon organising committee chairwoman Maria Sleeman said Mr Hill was always able to be relied upon and his accuracy with timing was second to none.
"It was always Laurie's timing tape that we used to refer to when collating the race results manually."
"Laurie also clearly understands getting things ready for the start of the races and has advised many a ‘new chum’ about this in the past."
