Half Marathon Hub Weekly: A World Record, NZ Results, Long Runs & What’s Coming Up | 24 August 2026
Kia ora and welcome to another Half Marathon Hub Weekly, your Monday round-up of what’s happening across the New Zealand half marathon scene — along with practical training advice to help you become a better half marathon runner.
This week, however, we’re going to start well beyond New Zealand.
On Sunday, one of the most extraordinary half marathon performances we’ve ever seen took place in Buenos Aires.
Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha ran 56:51 for the half marathon.
Yes — 56 minutes and 51 seconds for 21.1 kilometres.
Back home, we’ve got results from Forest Run Fest in Christchurch, before turning our attention to three important areas of training: getting your long run right, understanding how your training should change from week to week, and a short but potent hill session.
We’ll also look ahead to a busy weekend featuring four half marathon-distance events around New Zealand.
Let’s get into it.
🌍 Yomif Kejelcha Runs 56:51 — A New Half Marathon World Record
We don’t normally lead the Half Marathon Hub Weekly with an international result, but some performances demand attention.
On Sunday 23 August, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha won the Media Maratón Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Argentina in an extraordinary 56:51, breaking the world half marathon record, subject to the usual ratification process.
For anyone wondering how to pronounce his name, a useful approximation is:
YOH-mif keh-JEL-cha.
Just How Fast Is 56:51?
Sometimes elite finishing times become numbers that are difficult for recreational runners to comprehend.
So let’s put this one into perspective.
Kejelcha averaged approximately:
2:42 per kilometre.
That is roughly:
13:29 per 5km.
Or approximately:
64.7 seconds per 400m lap.
And he effectively kept doing that for more than 52 laps of a standard athletics track.
Think about whatever pace you might run for a single 400m repetition.
Kejelcha was averaging roughly 65 seconds per lap for an entire half marathon.
That’s extraordinary.
He Didn’t Just Break the Record
The previous ratified record was Jacob Kiplimo’s 57:20, set in Lisbon earlier this year.
Kejelcha took 29 seconds off it. World Athletics’ current record progression now lists Kejelcha’s 56:51 ahead of Kiplimo’s 57:20, with the asterisk denoting the pending ratification status.
Perhaps even more impressive was the manner in which Kejelcha ran it.
He made his decisive move at around 7km and then effectively raced the final two-thirds on his own. Second-placed Tadese Worku eventually finished in 59:20, meaning Kejelcha crossed the line 2 minutes 29 seconds clear.
There is an interesting technical detail behind the record books too.
Kiplimo ran an even faster 56:42 in Barcelona in 2025, but that performance was subsequently found not to satisfy the conditions required for world-record ratification. That left his ratified 57:20 from Lisbon as the mark Kejelcha needed to beat.
Whatever level you run at, performances like this remind us just how far the boundaries of endurance running continue to move.
56:51. At approximately 2:42/km.
That’s worth appreciating for a moment.
🏁 Forest Run Fest Results — Christchurch
Back in New Zealand, Forest Run Fest took place in Christchurch on Sunday 23 August.
Men
- Hayden Zervos — 1:17:09
- Tom Galloway — 1:18:39
- Glenn Jaques — 1:25:37
Hayden Zervos and Tom Galloway produced a close battle at the front, with only 90 seconds separating first and second.
Women
- Hannah Oldroyd — 1:27:39
- Maddy Conway — 1:41:18
- Lauren Cross — 1:46:37
Congratulations to Hannah on the women’s victory and to everyone who headed into Bottle Lake Forest and completed the event.
🏃 Training Focus: Your Half Marathon Long Run
If there is one workout that sits at the heart of half marathon preparation, it’s the long run.
But simply running further doesn’t automatically make it a good long run.
One of the biggest mistakes I see runners make is treating the weekly long run as a test of their fitness.
They start conservatively, feel good, gradually increase the pace and eventually turn the final portion into something resembling a race.
They finish exhausted and think:
“That was a great workout.”
Maybe.
But that’s not necessarily what we were trying to achieve.
Your Long Run Has a Job
For most of your half marathon preparation, your long run is primarily about building aerobic endurance and durability.
That generally means spending a lot of the session at Level II — Endurance/Conversational intensity.
You should be able to talk.
You should feel controlled.
And you shouldn’t spend the entire session watching your average pace and trying to make it look impressive.
The purpose is to develop your ability to keep running efficiently as duration increases.
That means the final 20 or 30 minutes matter.
Not because we necessarily want them to be fast, but because we want you to maintain your movement quality and control as fatigue develops.
Don’t Race Your Long Run
Your long run isn’t there to prove that you could race a half marathon today.
That’s what race day is for.
If every long run becomes a race simulation, you substantially increase its recovery cost.
That can compromise the training that follows and, over time, undermine consistency.
The long run should build you rather than repeatedly empty you.
As race day approaches, we can deliberately introduce more specific elements when appropriate.
But those changes should happen because they fit the training plan — not because you happened to feel good after 70 minutes and decided to hammer the final half hour.
👉 Read the full guide:
How to Run Your Half Marathon Long Run
📅 Why Your Training Shouldn’t Look the Same Every Week
There’s another important distinction between training and simply exercising.
Good half marathon training has direction.
We aren’t just collecting workouts.
And that doesn’t only apply across a 12-, 16- or 20-week programme.
It applies from one week to the next.
This is where weekly periodisation becomes useful.
Training Stress Needs a Rhythm
If every week contains the same mileage, the same workouts and the same training stress, eventually your body becomes very familiar with what you’re asking it to do.
At the other extreme, simply adding more training every week indefinitely isn’t sustainable either.
Instead, we manipulate training across the weeks.
Some weeks provide a greater stimulus.
Others give your body more opportunity to absorb the work you’ve already completed.
That hard/easy rhythm is important.
Fitness isn’t created solely by training stress.
It’s created when your body adapts to that stress.
And adaptation requires recovery.
Look Beyond One Workout
This is why I don’t want runners judging their programme solely by today’s session.
A workout can only really be understood in the context of what came before it and what comes after it.
A hard Tuesday session affects what we should be doing on Wednesday.
A substantial training week influences what might be appropriate the following week.
And the demands of the current phase influence the type of training we’re prioritising.
Your programme should therefore have rhythm and progression rather than simply being a collection of individually impressive workouts.
👉 Read more:
Weekly Periodisation for Half Marathon Training
⛰️ Workout Focus: 3x 3-Minute Hill Reps
This week’s featured workout is short, simple and effective:
3x 3-minute hill repetitions at Level V.
The session is:
10min warm-up — Level II
3x 3min uphill — Level V
3min Level II recovery between repetitions
10min cool-down — Level II
10min stretching
Only nine minutes of the workout is spent completing the hard hill repetitions.
Don’t mistake that for an easy session.
Why Run Hard Uphill?
Hill repetitions give us an opportunity to combine high aerobic intensity with the strength demands of running uphill.
At Level V — VO₂ Max intensity, these repetitions should be hard.
But hard doesn’t mean losing control.
I still want good running posture.
Keep your hips tall.
Use your arms.
Maintain a purposeful cadence.
And don’t turn the first repetition into a sprint.
You have three repetitions to complete.
The aim is to produce three quality efforts, not one spectacular effort followed by two progressively slower ones.
Run by Effort, Not Pace
This is particularly important on hills.
Your normal flat-running pace isn’t relevant.
Gradient changes pace dramatically.
Instead, focus on maintaining the appropriate Level V effort and good running mechanics.
The hill provides the resistance.
Your job is to provide the appropriate effort.
👉 See the complete workout:
3x 3-Minute Hill Reps
🏃 12 Weeks to Kerikeri — Training Starts Monday
If you’re targeting the Kerikeri Half Marathon, it’s time to get organised.
Our dedicated 12-week Kerikeri Half Marathon training programmes begin next Monday, 31 August.
The 2026 Kerikeri Half Marathon is on Saturday 21 November, with the 21.1km event running from Ōkaihau to Kerikeri.
All five Hub+ levels are available:
Kerikeri • Starter • 12 Weeks
Kerikeri • Builder • 12 Weeks
Kerikeri • Improver • 12 Weeks
Kerikeri • Performance • 12 Weeks
Kerikeri • Elite • 12 Weeks
Kerikeri’s predominantly downhill nature also makes preparation interesting. Downhill running may be fast, but it still places substantial eccentric loading through your legs.
So don’t make the mistake of assuming a downhill course means you don’t need to prepare specifically for it.
You want legs capable of taking advantage of the course without being destroyed by it.
If Kerikeri is your goal, your structured build starts next Monday.
🌋 24 Weeks to Tarawera Ultra-Trail 21K
We’ve also got a very different 21km goal beginning its training journey.
Our 24-week programme for the Tarawera Ultra-Trail 21K starts Monday 31 August.
Tarawera Ultra-Trail by UTMB is scheduled for 13–14 February 2027, with the T21 starting on the Saturday.
Twenty-four weeks gives us something extremely valuable:
Time.
We don’t need to rush.
We can build the foundation, develop your trail-running durability and progressively prepare you for the specific demands of the event.
That is particularly important when your 21km involves trails rather than a conventional road half marathon.
Again, the goal isn’t simply to become fitter.
It’s to become fitter for the event you’re actually doing.
🇳🇿 Four Half Marathon Challenges This Weekend
We’ve got a much busier New Zealand calendar ahead, with four events offering approximately half marathon distance across Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August. A check of the national half-marathon calendar also shows these as the four half-marathon events for the weekend.
🌲 Kaitaia Trail Run/Walk — Saturday 29 August
The Kaitaia Trail Run/Walk heads into Te Hiku Forest, with 21.1km, 11.5km and 4km options.
The half marathon takes runners through the distinctive pine forest environment, making this a very different proposition from a conventional road half.
For runners tackling the 21.1km, let the terrain dictate your pace.
Effort first. Pace second.
🌊 Mount Maunganui Half Marathon — Saturday 29 August
Also on Saturday is the Mount Maunganui Half Marathon, with 21.1km, 10km and 5km distances.
The half marathon is predominantly flat with only minor undulations, making this a very different racing proposition from the weekend’s trail events.
If you’re racing at the Mount, don’t let a fast course tempt you into abandoning your pacing plan in the opening kilometres.
A fast course still needs a smart race.
🌿 Auckland Trail Run & Walk: Waitawa — Sunday 30 August
On Sunday, the Auckland Trail Run & Walk Series reaches Waitawa Regional Park for Event #6 of the winter series.
The Super Long option is approximately half marathon distance — listed around 21km-plus — and Waitawa combines undulation, native bush and views across the Firth of Thames.
Once again, don’t compare your trail kilometre splits with what you might expect on the road.
Run the terrain in front of you.
🏞️ Lake Dunstan Trail Marathon — Sunday 30 August
Finally, the Lake Dunstan Trail Marathon takes place on Sunday, with its programme including a half marathon alongside the full marathon and shorter distance. The event runs in the Clyde-to-Cromwell area of Otago.
Whether you’re racing the half marathon or using the weekend as another step towards a later goal, remember:
The work is done.
You aren’t going to create meaningful new fitness in the final few days before race day.
But you can certainly create fatigue.
Arrive fresh and give yourself the opportunity to use the fitness you’ve already built.
Good luck to everyone racing around New Zealand this weekend.
🎯 This Week’s Takeaway
There’s an interesting connection between a runner completing their first half marathon and Yomif Kejelcha running 56:51.
The speeds may be worlds apart.
But endurance performance still rewards many of the same principles.
Consistency.
Appropriate intensity.
Progressive training.
Specific preparation.
And the discipline to execute the plan rather than constantly trying to prove your fitness.
Your long run doesn’t need to become a race.
Your training doesn’t need to get harder every single week.
And your hill repetitions don’t need to start with an all-out sprint.
The spectacular performances we see on race day are built from a lot of much less spectacular training completed consistently beforehand.
That’s true whether you’re trying to run 56:51, 1:30, sub-2:00, or simply complete your first 21.1km.
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➡️ Coming Next Week
Next week we’ll have plenty to catch up on, with results to look for from:
Kaitaia Trail Run/Walk
Mount Maunganui Half Marathon
Auckland Trail Run & Walk: Waitawa
Lake Dunstan Trail Marathon
We’ll also bring you another featured workout and more practical half marathon training advice.
And Monday will mark Day One for runners beginning the 12-week Kerikeri Half Marathon programme and the 24-week Tarawera Ultra-Trail 21K programme.
For more half marathon training, race information, workouts and coaching advice, visit:
www.HalfMarathonTraining.co.nz
Until next week, train smart, stay consistent and enjoy your running.
