Having qualified for this year's 50k World Trophy Final by winning last year's event in Ireland I was really excited about going as 'defending champion'.  It was a slightly odd situation to be in, though, as I wanted to race hard to try and retain my title, but at the same I knew I would have to stick to a strict pace schedule in order that I didn't completely wreck my legs only 3 weeks before representing Great Britain in the World 100k champs.

I travelled to the Netherlands with my coach, Les Barnett, flying from Birmingham to Amsterdam, then by train to Assen in the north of the country.  We were met at the station and taken to the hotel on the outskirts of Assen, right on the 50k course.  I was sharing a room with Jo Zakrewski from Scotland - we'd never met before but she had finished just behind me in Comrades so we had plenty to talk about!!  Later that evening we met up with the rest of the England team at dinner.

The following day (Friday) was taken up with all the usual pre-race formalities.  I was asked to attend a press conference along with the other two top qualifying women, and the top three men.  We were all asked to say something about how our preparation had gone, what our aspirations for the race were etc.  We were then asked a couple of questions - one of which was how fast was anyone planning to run!!  Obviously no-one was keen to answer that, preferring to keep their cards close to their chest!

That evening we took part in the opening ceremony.  All the international athletes were taken by bus into the centre of Assen, where a man with a microphone was awaiting us.  After a few speeches / interviews with the race organisers and IAU officials he then proceeded to call each athlete up, one by one, and ask them some questions.  He said he would ask each person one question but this actually turned into several questions!  Some of the foreign athletes who didn't speak much English struggled a bit, but the highlight was definitely one of the Japanese girls.  As soon as she was called up she opened her Japanese / Dutch phrase book and started interviewing the interviewer instead!  She was so funny and provided some welcome relief to what was otherwise a very long drawn out process!  Afterwards we were all taken back to the hotel on an open top bus for our pre-race dinner and an early night.

England Team at the opening ceremony 

Being interviewed at the opening ceremony

I must have had about 2 hours sleep that night and all too soon it was time to get up for a 7am breakfast.  As usual I'd taken my favourite pre-race cereal with me as you can't always rely on what hotels have to offer!

A detailed description of the race, with photos, can be read under my Race Schedule blogs.  (For those who can't be bothered to read this, I finished 2^nd in a time of 3hrs 25.05 - five minutes inside my planned time.)

   Crossing the finish line 

Luckily I wasn't selected for drug testing after the race - I say luckily as after last year's race it took me several hours to produce a sample!!  This time it was great to be able to go straight back to the hotel for a nice shower and some food!  Later in the afternoon we all walked back to the athletics track for the prize giving / closing ceremony.  I stood on the podium to receive my silver medal, bouquet of flowers, glass trophy and an envelope with a very exciting looking piece of silver coloured card in it.  Yes, that's right, a piece of silver coloured card!!  The winner got, guess what, a piece of gold coloured card, and 3^rd place a piece of bronze coloured card!!  We thought it might at least be a certificate or something, but no, just a piece of coloured card!  Must rank among the weirdest prizes I've ever received!

With my medal and trophy

Me (2nd), Emma (1st), Jo (3rd) 

The British girls finished 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 6^th and 9^th while the men finished 6^th, 7^th and 8^th - a great result all round.  That evening we had a celebratory meal (i.e. as many chips and puddings as we could stuff in!). 

All in all it was a great weekend - I was proud to have represented my country and happy with my silver medal, especially bearing in mind I had to stick to my pace schedule rather than try and race Emma (who was the race winner).  She had a fabulous race and I'm really pleased for her to run such a great time especially after the injury problems she's had.  As I'm fairly new to the ultra-distance scene it was great to be a part of the team and to get to know the others better.