News & Updates

Running quicker than ever at the age of 45, Simon Mace will undoubtedly be one of the leading masters athletes to watch at the New Zealand Road Championships in Upper Hutt on Sunday.

Smashing his PBs for 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m on the track this year, scalping more than 10 mins from his marathon best, claiming the New Zealand M45 cross country crown and last month setting a *New Zealand M45 10km road record mark (*still be ratified) the Auckland-based railway engineer is currently riding a crest of a wave and is looking forward to the 10km challenge at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport where he will once again look to produce his best.

Born and raised in Tokoroa in the Waikato, Simon was a respectable 1:59 800m runner at school and later ran for the University of Canterbury during his days studying in Christchurch before he headed overseas.

Running largely recreationally, Simon spent a two-year period in Australia followed by a lengthy 13-year stint living in England where he flirted with the more competitive side of the sport.

“I loved running, I did some cross country races in England and I also ran the 2007 and 2009 London Marathons but I didn’t run well and looking back I didn’t train that much. After running my second London Marathon, I thought my marathon days were over.”

Returning to New Zealand in 2015 with a young family the following year his running career received a boost in slightly quirky circumstances. Intrigued when reading about athletes who had completed lengthy running streaks, Simon embarked on running every day in 2016 and achieved the feat which unquestionably aided his running development.

“It got me quite fit and set me up well for the World Masters Games, which took place the next year in Auckland. I won age-group medals in the half marathon, cross country and 10,000m (at World Masters Games) and it was around that point I met Nick Moore at Owairaka and he encouraged me to join the club.”

While Simon has been a consistent performer on the domestic masters scene, the father-of-two says the 2021 lockdown played a pivotal role in allowing his running career to take the next step. It was during this period when Simon started training twice a day for the first time and as a consequence his weekly mileage ballooned from an average of around 80-90km a week to 130km.

Self-coached, Simon admits he adopts a basic approach to training which has stood him in good stead.

“I don’t do anything peculiar in my training, I don’t go for any complicated distances, I just do simple sessions which I find are much easier to execute,” adds Simon, who regularly trains on the Auckland Waterfront. “I run twice a day maybe four or five times a week, I do two key sessions a week and go for a long run on a Sunday.”

The benefit of the extra mileage could be seen during the track season earlier this year as Simon posted a series of massive new PB’s – 3000m (8:58.60) 5000m (15:22.58) and 10,000m (32:06.87).

Intending to target the Christchurch Marathon he was disappointed the event was cancelled because of the pandemic but discovering the Reboot Marathon would proceed gave the North Shore-based athlete a fresh goal.

“After Christchurch was cancelled, I’d taken my foot off the gas a little bit. But when I saw Reboot, I thought I have got to be part of it and give it my best.”

Working on a compressed time frame of around two months to prepare for Reboot – Simon, who at that point had marathon PB of 2:38:34, had an additional motivation.

“My dad has run more than 30 marathons including a sub-2:30 marathon,” explains Simon.

“I thought that was an amazing time and I tailored my marathon sessions around that.”

Race day could not have gone any better for Simon. Running in a strong group seeking a sub-2:30 clocking, he passed halfway in 74:45 before coming back home more than a minute quicker to run a stunning new PB of 2:27:57 and an Auckland M40 record to place sixth overall.

“I stopped my watch on the finish line and I was really happy,” says Simon who just two days later celebrated his 45^th birthday and moved into the M45 division. “It was really unexpected to run under 2:30 by more than two minutes.”

Since his performance in the Reboot Marathon, Simon has continued to flourish. In July he led home an Owairaka AC one-two in the men’s M45 race at the New Zealand Cross Country Championships in Taupo before returning the following day to strike gold in the composite team relay.

Then just two weeks ago at the Auckland Road Championships he recorded a blistering 10km PB of 31:55 to set a New Zealand masters 45-49 record and place second overall in the combined senior and masters race.

So what would the flying Simon like to achieve at the New Zealand Road Championships at the New Zealand Campus for Innovation and Sport this weekend?

“I don’t have a lot of fixed goals, I just want to give it my best and enjoy the racing,” he says. “I’ve run so many races I don’t get too nervous and I’m quite aware that someone new might pop up and win the race. It doesn’t really worry me where I place, I just want to be competitive on the day, give it my all and I’ll be happy.”

But does the late starter to serious running have any regrets he did not focus on the sport a little earlier?

“Yes and no,” he says. “I don’t beat myself up about it. I do realise it could have been different had I gone all in at school and been more competitive through my late teens. But it is what it is, I made the choices I did and I’m happy with what I have done.”