The Great Lake Relay is an annual team running event over approximately 160 km. It is held at Taupo, New Zealand on the third Saturday of February (not to be confused with the Great Lakes Relay held in Michigan in July). Each team consists of ten to eighteen members, either running or walking to complete the eighteen 4.7 km to 14.4 km legs around the largest lake in Australasia, Lake Taupo.
In 2009 this event, currently sponsored by New Balance, will be held on Saturday 21 February, and will be celebrating the 14th running of the event which started back in 1995.
With over 5000 registered amateur and professional runners from all over Australasia taking part in the race each year, it is the biggest event of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. While there are prizes awarded to the winners of the relay, and $150,000 worth of spot prizes given away, most of the runners take part just for the joy of team building and participating.
Following the prize giving, a post-race party is held in the Great Lake Centre, overlooking Lake Taupo, with plenty of drinks available.
Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“Turn back,
back
to the lake of Delos;
lest all the song notes
pause and break
across a blood-stained throat....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)