Procurement Manager Rhys Davey has achieved a couple of significant personal and professional milestones.

Rhys completed his hundredth marathon in Taupo on the weekend before he celebrated his 30th work anniversary on 7 August 2025.

The sixty-four-year-old is only the sixty-fifth person in Aotearoa to be welcomed into the One Hundred Marathon Club New Zealand. But he’s not done yet!

“It’s a bit of a relief. The nearer to the target I got, the more nervous I became as injuries tend to pop up. The longest distance I’ve run is a 63km ultra-marathon, but I’m aiming for 100km next year before my 65th birthday,” he says.

Rhys is also celebrating thirty years of long service to Unitec. He will join his colleagues from the Trades and Services School for a celebratory morning tea in Mataaho on Thursday.

Rhys, who is originally from Whangarei, did his apprenticeship as an engineer (fitter and turner) after high school.

In the early 1990s, he moved to Auckland with his wife and daughter. While his wife did a radiography course at Unitec, Rhys worked for three years on Rosebank Road before applying for work at Unitec in 1995.

“I started as an auto technician, then I taught welding part-time,” he explains.

After completing a graduate diploma in teaching, Rhys went on to develop new industry welding procedures that were adopted by testing labs at Unitec, then got qualified as a welding supervisor.

He also developed a new course for BOC Gas NZ for their internal professional development, which was taught during semester breaks.

“I was promoting Unitec to industry, business owners and potential students,” he adds. “I would take our virtual welders to major industry shows like Big Boys Toys.”

He was the Acting Senior Technician for Automotive when the new Trades building, Mataaho, was built in 2017. He was then approached to work in procurement for the Trades and Services School.

“I went through a few reshuffles over the years. I also help with training the trainers, with health and safety, and machinery maintenance,” he remarks.

While Rhys is vastly experienced with nearly four decades working in the trades, he is a relative late bloomer as a runner.

“I played a bit of cricket and table tennis in Whangarei, but I was never a runner. I only took running seriously when I did my first Auckland Round the Bays in 2004 when I was 44. He hasn’t looked back since.

It has taken him twenty years and three months to reach his hundredth marathon, running fifty of those in the last seven years alone.

“It speaks volumes about Rhys’s unmatched determination, resilience, and mental strength. We’re incredibly proud of him,” says Head of School of Trades and Services, Lee Baglow.

Rhys enjoys the social aspect of running and meeting new people on the running circuit.  He also loves the therapeutic aspects.

“If I have a few large days at work, I can clear the mind or work through issues while out and about on foot, it gives you time to think,” he says.

“I love to listen to podcasts or do math problems in my head while I’m running”.

Rhys says staying active is the key to his longevity.

“You must do the mileage, time on your feet, hydrate and fuel. I run all year around so there’s no down time,” he explains.

“The running club I am in does 2-14 week build ups for Auckland marathon and Rotorua marathon which is close to 1000km in fourteen weeks.”

Rhys says he is fortunate to have avoided major injuries, but he believes pacing himself has helped to reduce that risk.

“I have done a couple of back-to-back marathon weekends then turn up to work on Monday feeling okay,” he says.

Rhys ranks the Ninety-Mile beach Ultra-Marathon in the Far North as the toughest marathon he’s run.

“It’s more of a mental exercise than physical, as the scenery did not change for nine hours, sea on the right and sand dunes on the left, from the start line to the finish line at Ahipara.”

Rhys is running his next marathon at the end of August on the North Shore. In the meantime, his focus is on supporting our kaimahi and learners in Mataaho.

The most satisfying part of his job is being part of the student journey and the relationships he’s developed over the years.

“I have been here long enough to know it really is all about the student’s journey, the best ways we can support them and to have students come back to visit when they have been successful out in the world,” he says.

“It is the people that make this place run. There have been many good people who have passed on over the last thirty years that will always stay in my memories.”