I'd just pay it. Get it over and done with. See if you can take the defensive driving course in your own city/county to wipe it off. (I've never been able to take that option here in Colorado - here it's either pay the fine or see you in court.
The same thing happened to me (46 in a 35), and the speed trap was at the bottom of a hill which I think is kinda lame. They said I could go to court and dispute it, but that probably wouldn't be worth my time...I'd have to take time off work, drive myself out there, and all that stuff, and I figure if I worked that day, I could probaly have made the money for the ticket back anyways. It was a $120 ticket + 2 points apparently here in Colorado which I thought was even worse. Anyways, to make a long story short, it was my first speeding ticket, and my insurance rates didn't go up. (they actually went down for these 6 months by a few dollars). I'm sure the insurance company will overlook a first time ticket - it's not like you were DUI or anything serious like that, although I guess this is the at the insurance company's discretion. (I'm with Allstate).
Oh yeah...and buy yourself a radar detector and let someone else be the "rabbit". That's what I did...radar detector = cost of speeding ticket and if you let someone else be the bait, you'll probably never get caught again.

That's what I ended up doing after the first ticket.