FIRST EVER ULTRA WIN!

Wow - what a day! This was always going to be an important event for me as the Ultra Race series was sponsored by 9bar and I wanted to do one of their races and hopefully do well at it to show my thanks for their fantastic sponsorship.
It was great to see Alan and Liz from 9Bar before the race and I was hopeful that I would have a good run. Despite torrential rain all over the country Nottingham was lovely! 15degrees and dry. So shorts and (9Bar)T shirt it was.
I set off at a fairly speedy pace with the intention of running well whilst I felt good and slowing down later if i needed to - This is the strategy that seems to work well for me. The first section of the course was on a lovely forest trail and i really enjoyed meeting Jo Kilkenny (Superb Ultra Runner) and having a chat with her on this nice section. As usual the downhills appeal to me and I managed to speed up my pace through this section. The first 8 miles passed by very quickly and I had gone through CP One (Where it was lovely to be cheered on by Mr and Mrs 9bar!) slightly ahead of my intended pace. I was still feeling strong so "Jogged on!" and got chatting to an Ultra Virgin who was having a change from iron man and we had a nice chat about pacing and both agreed we were "Run fast whilst you can people!" Hubby Phil met me at one point and had a nice jog along the road with me and then vanished into the forest to walk Blizzy. At Cp2 i knew that the second lady was on my tail and actually overtook me for a while but remained in sight. I foolishly followed two people who took a wrong turn and ended up doing a detour down a rather large hill and then back up! OOOPS! That will teach me. One of these was the Lady who was in front of me though so i decided to "Only follow MY route and ignore everyone else!". A rather lovely section came next down hill and through lots of fields that were quite muddy underfoot. Suitable terrain for a fell runner! I really enjoyed this section and knew that I was putting distance between myself and lady number two.

CP 3 - I remember being at the top of a hill on a road section through Kimberley where I was convinced I had gone the wrong way and had to keep looking at my map. Sure enough the little yellow arrows came back into sight and lovely people equipped with sweets and water cheered us on.
Of the next section I remember very little! I took out my ipod as i was feeling a little lonely and jogged along the Steps to pass away the time. My foot was starting to get quite sore and i loosened my shoes off to help this. CP4 had a lovely little descent to it and the most amazing thing - it was equipped with cans of FULL FAT COKE! Bliss!
I enjoyed drinking this on the way up a hilly section through the woods. Next i remember going through the Deer park chatting to some nice people. I remember looking at my watch at this point and realising there were only about 4 miles to go and i was reasonably confident i could win it, but i was also feeling very tired!
As we ran through some horrible road works and ended up on the canal the castle was in sight. I did look over my shoulder a few times but knew that lady number two had dropped back way out of sight now and I was looking forward to the end. The last road section as we came off the canal was a little sparse with markers but i was delighted to turn onto the final street - not quite so delighted when i saw the incline of it. I could see the tape across the finish line and knew that it was there for me to go through as 1st lady!
My first ever Win at an Ultra! - Ultra Number 6. 50K off road in 4hrs 15mins and 29 seconds. Oh and a new course record! Woo hoo!