Current Bay of Plenty Regional Council Councillor and candidate for re-election Kat Macmillan plans to run two marathons in two days to run the Tauranga constituency. Kat is standing in the Tauranga Constuency of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council which is the same boundary as the Tauranga City Council area.

Kat says: “It’s for a bit of fun really but I want to promote the idea that people need to get out and vote and seeing me out and about might remind them. Democracy is an active ‘doing word’, it takes all of us to participate in it. And in Tauranga particlarly, some people don’t realise there are local government elections as there are no TCC council elections this year.”

Both marathons will start and finish at Red Square in the Tauranga CBD. Saturday’s marathon on 13th September will head out to Papamoa via Bayfair and then back along the beachfront to the Mount, around Mauao and back over the harbour bridge. Sunday’s marathon on 14th September will head to Matapihi over the railway bridge, across to Maungatapu and Welcome Bay, through Windamere to Greerton, on to Bethlehem, Bellevue, Otumoetai, Matua, Pillans Point and Te Papa back to Red Square.

“Some friends have committed to joining me and I hope other people come out and jog along with me for however much they want to do, or come along on their bikes. I’ll be running at ‘chat’ pace so it’ll be great to chat about all things Regional Council and local government as I go. It’s going to be a challenge for me though as although I’ve run a number of marathons and ultra marathons, I’ve never done back to back events like this. I’ll have pretty tired legs by the end of it!” Says Kat.

“I’m also keen to create awareness about what Regional Council does for us all, there have been some flippant comments from Ministers about local government structure and I believe we need to fully understand function before we talk about form.

At the end of the day we pretty much all want the same things; we want our economy to thrive within environmental limits, we want to be able to enjoy nature with our families, we want to be able to swim in clean lakes and rivers, we want the air that we breathe to be clean and fresh, we want to be safe on the water, we want to be able to move easily around our city and get where we need to go, we want Quayside’s intergenerational fund to keep growing and growing whilst also benefitting each and every one of us now and in the future, and if disaster strikes, we want our emergency management systems to be world class. That’s what I’ve been working on for you for for three years and that’s what our Regional Council is doing for us.” Kat concludes.

Details: 

8am start on both Saturday 13 th and Sunday 14 th September at Red Square,

Tauranga CBD. Finish back there around lunchtime each day.

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