Runner Lisa Robertson eyes London Olympics

ROSS GIBLIN/Fairfax NZ

WELL DONE: Lisa Robertson gets a hug from her MP dad Ross Robertson after she competed in the New Zealand road running championships on the Wellington waterfront.

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Lisa Robertson has shifted her Olympic compass from Rio de Janeiro to London after the jockey/athlete exceeded all expectations on her marathon debut last month.

The 28-year-old Aucklander took up competitive running only three years ago after blitzing the police fitness test as a budding cop.

Since then she has changed careers, recording four wins from 48 rides as an apprentice jockey, and her star within Athletics New Zealand is on the rise.

The daughter of Labour MP Ross Robertson, she won the national road championships in Wellington in August and then captured the Auckland marathon title last month, beating Australian national champ Kirsten Molloy in her first attempt at 42.2km.

Robertson had been hampered by shin problems in her marathon preparations but still recorded a course record 2h 41m 56s, a time that has encouraged both her and her coach John Bowden to try to qualify for London 2012.

"The original plan was Rio 2016 and we were going to spend the next five years training for that. But if there's a chance, you may as well try," Robertson said.

"My coach very gently said it at the beginning of the year, that possibly you could give the marathon and the Olympics a go, but it's sort of become a bit more real now. I mean it was my first go and Olympic qualifying-wise I've still got to drop 10 minutes, so there's still a lot of work to go. But I don't think it's impossible anymore."

The demands of running a marathon mean Robertson will attempt to better the 2h 32m qualifying time just once, most likely on a flat course in Japan in April.

"It'll be quite intense just trying to get my speed down now."

Robertson is certainly not afraid of hard work.

An apprentice to Caroline Pomare in Papakura, Robertson often gets up before 4am to go for a training run before reporting for duty at the stables at 5.30am.

Her running friends have stopped trying to keep up with her so she has taken to training with her horse-loving mother.

"Mum's got a couple of ponies that they're breaking in, so it's good. I just run around the roads and the horse follows me. Because I don't shy at things, it's good education for them. Sometimes they trot a bit slow but when we run across the farms and that, then they beat me."

Robertson says riding horses and running are complimentary for cross-training and she even goes for training runs in between saddling up at the races.

"When I'm sore from running, the horses make me feel better and when I'm sore from riding, the running makes me feel better."

Robertson will proudly don a black New Zealand singlet for the first time this month when she contests the prestigious Chiba Ekiden international marathon relay race in Japan.

Despite her promise, Robertson gets no funding from Athletics NZ or the Olympic Committee and relies on her politician father and a generous shoe sponsor for financial support.

But she has clearly caught the marathon bug and was in awe of compatriot Kim Smith's 2h 25m in New York this week.

"I really enjoyed the distance. Some people say `I don't want to do that again' but I really liked it. Once I'm conditioned to it, it won't bother me at all."

- © Fairfax NZ News