Done and dusted

3 hours and 28 minutes. Up hill and down dale. Over the most picturesque countryside to run and finish the 2009 Connemarathon.
It all started at 10:30 by Lough Inagh after the first ultra runner went through. It started off cold with a headwind but that was refreshing once we started. Turning a corner after 5 miles the wind was behind us for most of the rest or the race. Some nice uphill sections later and it was a long downhill into Leenane. That marked the half way point and we then had to run through the back markers of the half marathon.
Coming out of Leenane and straight into a long uphill. I got my hrm working properly from here and my hr was up around 180bpm. I managed to drop it down a bit as I was going uphill. After 9 miles we got to the bottom of "the hill".
This was a 2 mile long hill. Strangely enough the pace dropped off but I still managed to pick people off on the way. From the top it was the last 2 miles. One downhill and one flat. These were the hardest two miles of the entire course. Eventually I made it and didn't walk a bit of it. I was so sore until I hot some food. A fantastic man was handing out Jaffa cakes. I have never been so happy to get a Jaffa cake :)
I'm sitting around now with the compression tights on, eating food and drinking tea. Let's see how well I can recover for a match this weekend. Lots of sleep and food!