Last weekend saw me taking part in my first race of the season – Hill of a Race (HOAR) – which involved running up, down and around the ski slopes at nearby Rabbit Hill Ski Resort. This race wasn’t an A race for me but rather a good training session for getting in some elevation in preparation for my mountain ultras over the coming months. My training for the past couple of months has included 4 hour hilly trail runs on the weekends which I think benefited me at HOAR last weekend, but at the same time, I did feel that I hadn’t really done enough hills nor hill repeats prior to this race that would enable me to be as competitive as I would normally like to be. Knowing that there was going to be a strong contingent of competitive lady runners taking part, I personally felt that I was unlikely to be anywhere near the front of the field, which in some ways reduced the amount of pressure on my performance, and I was able to go to the race focused on my own individual goals rather than feeli...