Former Olympian and long-distance runner Rod Dixon. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Before Rod Dixon became an Olympian and marathon runner, he was a young boy who had trouble sitting still in class.
A pupil at Nelson's Tāhunanui School, one of his teachers recognised his need to burn off steam and used to send him out with a note for another teacher, telling Dixon he had two minutes to get there and two minutes to get back.
But Dixon could run around the whole school in four minutes, and said it was the short bursts of exercise that helped him to focus in the classroom.
"He knew to get Rodney moving - get oxygen into the brain and he's going to be a better student, he's not going to sit down and slow down," Dixon said.
Now, Dixon is back in Nelson with fellow Olympian running champion Lorraine Moller to help four Nelsonians, including Mayor Nick Smith, prepare for the largest marathon in the world.
Dixon said running had become "an expression of his life". He won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, taking home several medals in the World Cross Country Championships before winning the New York City Marathon in 1983.
From left, Top South media managing director Andrew Board, Tāhunanui School principal Barbara Bowen, Olympians Rod Dixon and Lorraine Moller, Nelson mayor Nick Smith and Saint Paul's Catholic School board chair Lester Binns with pupils from Tāhunanui School. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
His passion for health and fitness led him to start KiDSMARATHON in the 90s - an in school running and nutrition educational programme that has since been implemented in schools in New Zealand and across the US, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines.
It encourages teachers to get kids outside for a run - even if just for a lap of the field or two - with those distances tallied up until the kids have run a full 42.2 kilometre marathon over 10 weeks.
It was hoped the running programme will soon be introduced at Dixon's former primary school, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the four-strong team heading to New York.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith, Tāhunanui School principal Barbara Bowen, Saint Paul's Catholic School Board chair Lester Binns and Top South Media managing director Andrew Board are training for the New York City Marathon and aim to raise $40,000 between them.
The funding will enable KiDSMARATHON to be introduced to another 10 schools in Nelson, starting with Tāhunanui School.
Bowen was also a former student of the school she now leads, and recalls when Dixon returned home after the Olympics.
"We were all watching the race in which he won the bronze medal and he came to [Tāhunanui] School with it and I remember him vividly and me being so excited to see him and the medal in real life."
She said running 42 kilometres in one go, along with jumping out of a plane and shaving her head, was something she never intended to do.
Tāhunanui School principal Barbara Bowen tells students she is heading to New York later this year to run her first marathon. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
But when Smith suggested they do it to raise funds to implement KiDSMARATHON at Tāhunanui and several other schools, Bowen said it was an opportunity she could not pass up.
She said being able to implement Dixon's running programme at his former school would be amazing.
"It's actually a programme over a period of time building fitness, building resilience, and then it's got an end goal, the kids get to run over that finish line which is just so exciting for children, to get a medal and recognition for that."
Smith, who has run a half-marathon, said running a full marathon had always been on his bucket list.
He had kept in touch with Dixon, who he considered a Nelson icon and hero.
"I mentioned to [Dixon] that when he won the New York Marathon, I was an AFS exchange student in that part of the US and it's the only time in the year that New Zealand was even mentioned and as a consequence he said to me, 'oh, well, you've got to come and do it'."
He said the next few months would involve a lot of training in the lead up to the event on 5 November.
Dixon's advice to those running was, "finishing is winning and winning is finishing".
"Be the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race."
