Eleanor Robinson

The first recorded time is of 13:00:45 by John Bell in 1803.

Eleanor Robinson (formerly Adams, née Puckrin, 20 November 1947) is a British former ultramarathon runner and two-time winner of the IAU 100km World Championships.

She was the first woman to run over 150 miles in a 24-hour endurance race.

The London to Brighton Race, from the 1960s to the 1980s was considered the premier race in the ultramarathon calendar.

Eleanor Robinson's ultramarathon career arguably began when she witnessed Ros Paul, a fellow Briton, set a record of 216.648 km for 24 hours on the first day of a 6-day race in 1982.

This was the first year that British women had run a track ultra and on that first occasion, Lynn Fitzgerald had beaten Ros Paul, setting world bests at 50 miles, 100 km (60 miles) and for 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in the Sri Chinmoy Adelaide 24 Hour Race, which was first held in 1982, Robinson was the winning woman and the only one of five, along with 16 men, to surpass 160 km.

In the meantime, Robinson took part in the inaugural Spartathlon in 1983.

The race covers the 250 km (150 mile) route that the Athenian messenger Pheidippides took in 490BC running from Athens to Sparta to get help against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

While Yiannis Kouros won the race, Robinson was the first woman to cross the line, in 32:37:52.

The Road Runners Club of America's 1984 National 50-mile and 100 km championships were held on 14 October at Lincoln Park in Chicago.

Robinson took the 50-mile women's title in 6:19:25 and went on to win the 100 km in 8:11:37.

At the 1984 New York 6-Day Race, Robinson was up against Donna Hudson, who had just set a new 100-mile world record.

Robinson took the lead from the start but was pursued closely by Hudson, who set a new American 48-hour record of 169 miles.

Robinson went on to win, setting a world record of 739.36 km. For the next five or so years, Hudson and Robinson would proceed to battle it out over many races, mostly in Australia.

Robinson won all of these challenges but Hudson frequently came second, breaking several American records along the way.

The first of these challenges was four months later in 1984, at Australia's first international 6-day race, which took place at Colac, Victoria and would become known as the Cliff Young Australian 6-day race.

In taking sixth place overall, Robinson broke 11 world records, becoming the first woman to surpass 800 km for the event, exceeding the 760 km world record set only a few weeks earlier in La Rochelle, France, by Edith Couhe.

Hudson ran 770.5 km to set a new American best.

It wasn't until 1985, however, that Robinson took on the 24-hour race at an event in Nottingham, where she broke the record with a distance of 222.8 km.

At the 1985 Westfield Ultra Marathon, a 960 km (600 mile) race from Sydney to Melbourne, Eleanor Robinson lined up against Donna Hudson and Margaret Smith of Melbourne.

Robinson and Hudson were favourites but after the first day, Smith led the race.

Robinson got ahead on the final day to win the race, just ahead of Hudson and Smith.

Robinson ran Colac four more times, from 1986 to 1989 (it wasn't held in 1985), winning on each occasion and thereby beating Hudson twice more.

The 1986 24-hour Multiplex Marathon was held at the Multiplex fitness centre in Deerfield, a suburb of Chicago.

It was the first time an ultra event had been held in the area.

Robinson was one of 16 competitors, four of them women.

The 1986 race was won by Terry Tullett of Brighton.

Robinson was the first woman to finish in a time of 6:43:40.

She was the winner of the first Badwater Ultramarathon in 1987.

The 1987 race was the last of Hudson's career.

While she set another American record of 780.6 km, Robinson ran a fresh world record of 838.8 km.

Her most notable appearance at Colac was in 1989, when Sandra Barwick of New Zealand set out to beat Robinson's record.

Robinson, however, came in third behind the two male athletes Maurice Taylor and Bryan Smith, with a new best of 866.36 km. Barwick came in 6 km (4 miles) behind to place fourth.

Adam's record five wins at Colac was later matched by Elvira Janosi of Serbia and Montenegro.

Robinson, however, is the only athlete to have won the event in five consecutive races.

She was twice bronze medallist at the IAU 100 km European Championships (1992, 1993).

Eleanor Robinson, née Puckrin, was brought up in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, the sister of Arthur, Richard and Philip.

All of them were keen athletes.

Arthur, the eldest, at the age of 69 broke the over 50s world record for the Tetra-Ironman in Virginia in October 2007.