Tokoroa Takes Up Half-Marathon Challenge

Around 100 people from the Tokoroa region, including more than 80 from Carter Holt Harvey Kinleith, are in the final stages of training for the Lost World Adventure, a corporate half-marathon being held on November 11 at Woodhill Forest, north of Kumeu.

With around 1,500 runners in total from Carter Holt Harvey and other companies including Chapman Tripp, Ernst & Young and Southern Cross, the Lost World Adventure will be New Zealand’s largest ever off-road running event.

Kinleith Mill Manager Dave King says the half-marathon challenge, which includes a 16-week company-sponsored training programme, has resulted in big lifestyle changes for some of the participants.

“Some of our group hadn’t run to the end of the street when they started,” Mr King said. “Now they’re running more than 15kms at a time”.

“We are seeing more of our employees out running in their lunch breaks or after work. If they can’t get out due to weather then you see them on the running machine in the gym.”

Mr King says the half-marathon programme has many lifestyle and quality of life benefits including improved fitness and morale.

Carter Holt Harvey staff in last year’s Auckland BMW half-marathon recorded an average five percent improvement in cholesterol levels, an average four kilogram weight loss and a ten percent improvement in resting heart rate. 87 percent of participants felt better or motivated as a result of completing the event.

“The basic idea is that a healthy employee is happier and more productive,” says Mr King. “It also provides an opportunity for an employee to stretch him or her self outside their comfort zone and to achieve something they previously regarded as unrealistic.”

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