If you want to do a 50 mile ultramarathon then this is probably the ideal ract to start with. Starting from near Aintree Race Course in liverpool the course is easy to follow right through to end at Didsbury. No navigation is needed, just your supplies and the required kit that is listed on the GB ultras website.

I arrived in Aintree on the Friday evening and stayed at a nearby Premier Inn that was a 10 minute walk to the start line. You could either go to the compulsary kit check on the Friday evening or on Saturday morning before the start of the race (which would mean getting up extra early).

The race was very well organised from start to finish. The organisers and the volunteers were all very passionate about running and were really encouraging at every checkpoint, rushing around to fill your water bottles and making sure you got plenty of food for fuel. The checkpoints were very well equipped with food and drinks. 

One of the good things i remember from setting off from the start was during the race briefing runners were reminded that there were cut off times. However they stated that the main priority of the day was that they wanted everybody that could finish, to finish and if that meant extending cut off times they would. I found that to be very generous, especially as the cut off times were already generous as they were.

The course is flat and a mix of road and light trail. I was going to run in some Salomon Speedcross trail shoes but was glad i didn't. I opted for my Asics Gel Sonomas that are classed as a trail shoe but can be used on either road or trail. You could probably get away with normal road shoes if you wanted to unless the weather had been particularly bad then certain sections of the trail can get a bit muddy.

The Liverpool to Manchester Ultra is an enjoyable way to enter the world of Ultramarathons and i would recommend it instantly to anybody mad enough to want to run that distance. I am thinking of doing it again next year.