O’Kane produced a personal best time to overcome rival and friend Colleen Middleton in the women’s event.

O’Kane, 21, cut exactly four minutes off her 2009 time, which placed her third, to claim yesterday’s race in 45 minutes flat.

“It feels pretty good (to have won) but I’m glad it’s over,” she said on the finish line.

Middleton, 48, also improved on her 2009 time, cutting 18 seconds off her time to finish in 46:54 while Stephanie Knight was third with a time of 49 minutes flat.

O’Kane, who backed up from playing netball for North Albury’s A-grade side on Saturday, said she was pleasantly surprised with her time.

“It’s a personal best, it was much faster than I thought it would be,” she said.

Her win follows her victory in February in Albury Council’s multi-sport challenge — the MAC 10 — where she placed first in the one mile dash and the 10km trail run.

O’Kane is also a winner of the Cumberoona Run.

She is the first Border-based runner to take out the title since Julie Gollan-Foard won in 2006.

O’Kane’s time yesterday was 41 seconds faster than last year’s winner Tarli Bird, who did not return to defend her title.

Unlike men’s winner Adam Byles, O’Kane did not walk on the way up the hills, choosing to run slowly.

She was neck and neck with Middleton for the first third of the race before drawing away to claim the title after discovering untapped reserves of energy.

“Colleen was just in front of me, I just tried to stick with her, just running really slowly up the hills,” he said.

“I felt all right coming to the last hill, much better than usual.

“So I just tried to pick it up for the hill and recover on the flat bit and I didn’t finish too bad, which was good.”