“I just started running more here in Timaru. The marathon is my distance. I have one key race a year, and I’ve done heaps of half-marathons,” Hoskins said. He ran his marathon PB (personal best) of 2 hours and 44 minutes 58 seconds at the Gold Coast Marathon in 2019. “This will be my first ultra. I wanted a flat one. I’ve trained 125km-140km a week and done heaps of speed work.” Just after the Covid-19 lockdown last year he did a “virtual” ultra, running a loop alone from his home in Trafalgar St and around a 7km course at Caroline Bay. He kept it up for 24 hours.