One of Britain’s finest ultra-distance runners, Lizzy Hawker, won The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) this weekend, beating over 1,300 runners of the highest ability to the finish line.
Widely considered the hardest endurance race in the world, the 8th annual UTMB was held in and around Chamonix, France on August 24-29.
Lizzy battled through a number of challenges to make it as the first woman to the finish, with severe weather conditions causing the event to be cancelled after only three hours.
A decision from organizers to adapt the original UTMB course meant the race was able to continue the next day, creating an alternative of approximately 100 km under the name of The North Face UTMB Restart.
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The restart proved tough on competitors both mentally and physically, however Lizzy persevered to cross the line five minutes ahead of her forecasted arrival at 22.04 in a time of 11h 47m 30s.
She explained to Sportsister. “It still feels a bit surreal really with what happened because of course we started and then they had to stop the race.
“We restarted on Saturday morning but I didn’t sleep at all during the night and it took them a while to work out whether it would actually be safe enough and whether they could actually logistically start us again, so it was a shorter course that we ran on Saturday.
“For me I was just really happy to have the opportunity to make part of the journey. Having to readjust yourself mentally and physically to start a new race again without having slept and without having eaten and just going to re-start what is in effect a new race was, I guess, tough for everybody, but then people were just happy that at least we had the chance to make a race.”
As an accomplished multi-sport athlete having achieved a multitude of ultra-distance and endurance running firsts, Lizzy has a number of wins under her belt, with this year’s UTMB win her third in only five years.
She also recently won the women’s race at the TransGranCanaria 2010 and secured a Gold medal for Great Britain in the 2006 100km World Championships.
Looking to the future Lizzy added: “I’m going to compete again in the World 100km Championships in November, so that’s the next big race that I’m focusing towards”.
The men’s UTMB race was won by fellow Brit Jez Bragg who crossed the line two minutes ahead of his scheduled time at 20.47 in a time of 10h 30m 37s.
To find out more about Lizzy visit www.lizzyhawker.com or see www.laufschule-scuol.ch.
Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
