My first ultra over 50K was the RTTK- also it's first year!

Its expensive, but it is fully signed with great check points and marshals!

The weather on the day was lovely to start, but we had 2 pretty brutal storms and I got soaked twice- it added to the fun for me.

The route is lovely- along the SDW finishing at Winchester cathedral where a few people had gathered to cheer us across the line. As mentioned previously, it is fully signed so you don't need to worry at all about navigation or GPS. The aid stations were well stocked and the marshals were best friends and helpful- filling up water bottles as needed. There were also portaloos at each check point too! The only downside to this was the one at half way- or full marathon distance. It was supposed to be the biggest check point with hot food- but I missed it. It wasn't particularly signed well and for those who were doing the marathon distance, this was their finish- I didn't see it because it was hidden round the back- luckily I had my own food and drink and enough to get me to the next check point. 

The other runners were lovely and I would recommend this race to anyone for their first full ultra! 53.5 miles of fun, hills and amazing scenery.

Now for the constructive criticism: we weren't checked in and out of aid stations- if a runner had a problem- Marshalls and friends etc, may not know where they were and we couldn't be tracked along the route. There were also not enough shuttles back to the start. I had to wait 2 hours for the first shuttle back at 10pm, the one after was 2am!! It should be a continuos service!

Other than that- a great great day out!