Sport for the love of it

For most people, sport is about enjoyment rather than endorsements or lucrative contracts. We talk to three athletes driven simply by the thrill of taking part.

THE RUNNER: 5am: Up for a run 7am: Off to work 7pm: Bed

It's 10.49am on Wednesday and Gabrielle O'Rourke has already been for two runs.

With her trademark long white socks, O'Rourke has been known to run to Petone and back before breakfast. And she lives in Newtown, not Naenae.

O'Rourke is quite a sight and quite a story.

Her alarm goes at 3.30am every day, by 5am she is looking out of the window for the "running train" and shortly after 7am she is racing out the door to Scots College, where she works in the secondary school's maths unit.

"I'm in bed before 7 o'clock," she says. "People know my routine so they know to ring me before 6pm or to use email after.

"I don't socialise much because I go to bed so early so I tell people I'll do brunch but don't ask me to do supper."

O'Rourke is 42. She took up running in 1981 when she was a fifth form pupil at St Catherine's College in Kilbirnie.

"I couldn't run to Lyall Bay School without stopping. I was so unfit, I was just into music and drama, the arts world really.

"But I started trying to run around the block and it grew from there. One day I wandered up to the club up the road [Wellington Harriers] and there were some guys drinking on the bank after a working bee and they said, `Come back next week'."

Come back she did, and the week after, and the week after.

Just last week she ran twice for Wellington Harriers in the annual Bays Relay.

She ran the first leg for the A team and the third leg for the B team.

"I've doubled up four times this year but I won't be doing it any more this year, though I've said that before."

O'Rourke couldn't begin to count how many long distance centre titles she has won.

Marathon is her pet distance. She has won two national titles, has competed several times in the Boston Marathon, including last year when she finished second in the masters section.

"In my mid-20s I was running 250km a week, now it is 180 tops."

Much of that mileage is done with the early morning "running train", which comprises Bernie Portenski, Lotty Turnidge and two male runners for security reasons.

"We normally go about 5am, it's quiet, just the cab drivers - they call out.

"I'm known as the girl with the long white socks, 'Pippi' as in Pippi Long Stockings. Running in a group helps. Two hours is a long time so it's good to talk, get any problems off your chest."

- By Jonathan Millmow

AT A GLANCE

Name: Gabrielle O'Rourke
Age: 42
Occupation: Assistant head of department for maths at Scots College
Club: Wellington Harriers
Best results: 10th in the 1993 Boston marathon, two national marathon titles, 2nd in the masters section of Boston marathon in 2008.

THE FOOTBALLER: Competition and camaraderie

After 17 years of top-level  club football, several  retirements and more goals  than anyone can remember,  Rupert Ryan is happily  hanging up his boots.

One of the most recognisable faces in Wellington football leaves today to begin a new life with his partner in Australia, where he'll probably still "play the odd social game".

Ryan, 35, played his last game for Central League leaders Western Suburbs last Sunday, a 3-1 loss to Olympic, which meant he missed a chance to celebrate a title win in his 17th year of club, national league or international football.

As the years went on he struggled to get enthused for trainings - having team-mates less than half his age didn't help - but there was always something luring him back.

"I enjoy competing," he says. "Even if you lose and the boys play well and put in a good performance, it doesn't really matter too much.

"I just really enjoy competing and the camaraderie of being with the lads.

"I never really struggled for motivation, apart from this season. Training twice a week is a bit of a chore. I used to love it but you get over it after a while.

"I still enjoy kicking a ball around, I just don't enjoy all the other stuff that goes on with it like travel and meetings."

Ryan, a prolific striker is his day, can't remember how many goals he's scored at all levels.

"Probably a few, the same as the amount of games I've missed through injury," he jokes.

He still managed four goals in the Central League this year, all "from a couple of yards" he reckons, and he "managed to get through 90 minutes on a couple of occasions as well".

"It just gets harder and harder to keep up with the young guys. I'm old enough for the masters grade now, but I've had a pretty good run really."

His highlight was getting an All Whites callup in 1998, last millenium as he points out.

"It was a burning ambition of mine when I was a young man and then it happened, and I sort of thought I'd be in there for quite a while, but it didn't work out that way even though I thought I got better as I got older."

- By Fred Woodcock

Name: Rupert Ryan
Age: 35
Occupation: Energy analyst
Club debut: 1992
International debut: 1998
Last club match: 2009

THE RUGBY PLAYER: Forever red and black

Misipalauni Moananu may have changed positions,  but he will never change his  stripes.

After 11 seasons in the midfield for the Poneke premiers, Moananu, more popularly known as P, this year did what most backs would consider madness and moved into the pack.

And it has paid off with the Poneke premier side's new No 8 scoring seven tries on his way to winning the Billy Wallace Memorial Trophy as the competition's best and fairest player.

"I was just too small I think [to consider the forwards]," Moananu, who tips the scales at over 100kg, laughed this week.

"But no, I was contemplating it for a couple of seasons. And then, from last year's team, we lost two flankers in Chris Brightwell and Haimona [Waititi] and a couple of other guys were injured in the pre-season."

His dad, Faletagoa'i, and older brother Fili had been urging him to change for a couple of seasons, and he finally mustered up the courage to take the plunge during the pre-season.

"I asked Watty [Poneke coach Richard Watt] if I could try it out in the pre-season. He said 'if you are going to change then stick to it'.

"He said 'you can't just dip your toes in, then go back because it's not fair on the other guys', so that was it."

Moananu's transformation has been so successful he has been named as a loose forward in the Wellington B team, where he has been a regular over the years in the backline.

"It's more short, sharp stuff, a lot more in the action and tackling. [At] second-five you are chasing steppers and fullbacks, and I'm not getting any faster, lighter or younger." That said, at 32, Moananu still clearly has plenty left to give to the red-and-blacks.

The club's motto is "You don't just join, you belong" and the Moananu family name has been synonymous with Poneke rugby since Fili joined the club in 1993.

Fa'atoto Moananu, who coaches the Poneke B side, followed a year later, then Misipalauni and his twin brother, Misiluni.

Misipalauni has been wearing the Poneke jersey since 1997 and apart from a year in Cambridge in 2002 he's served his club like clockwork.

"He's on 196 caps, and that's starts," Watt said. "He's well deserving of that best and fairest award because he personifies everything good about a club player. I can't remember him ever missing or being late to a training that whole time."

Moananu is too humble to talk up his contribution, only saying he wished he had more Jubilee Cups to savour after playing in six finals.

"I made the finals a couple of times . . . let me see, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004 and 2006. We won it once in 2003, so it's been hard to get our hands on it.

"But I still love it. It's been one of the best seasons I have enjoyed. We haven't got any stars, so it's just guys doing the training, having a beer and working hard. There's been a great ethos at the club."

- By Toby Robson

Name: Misipalauni Moananu
Age: 32
Partner: Shannon Williams
Works at: Eftpos New Zealand
Club: Poneke
Caps: 196

- © Fairfax NZ News