The Pendle Way is a 45 mile circular route starting and finishing at the Heritage Centre in Barrowford. At 28.5 miles, this event was a shortened version of that route and was limited to 40 places.

The aim of the event was to raise funds for Laura Nuttal & test the organisation/logistics ready for a planned Feb 2020 event over the full 45 mile Pendle Way route.

It was well run with 4 checkpoints to refill water & grab a bit of food. The weather was perfect, not too cold & very little wind. The first 5 miles were off the Pendle Way until Laneshawbridge Bridge then the off road / trails started taking everyone along Boulsworth Bottoms, Catlow Bottoms, Walverden Reservoir, Brierfield, Higham, Newchurch in Pendle, Pendle Hill, Barley then back to the finish in Barrowford.

Five intrepid BFR runners toed the line, Diane "Maccers" MacDonald, Tim Pigot, Paul Elcock, Andy Berry & Gary Bradley. Andy bagged a win, Gary Bradley came home in 5th with Tim & Paul following not far behind. Diane took it as a social event,  so hooked up & ran with three “hunks” from Trawden AC.     Everyone had a great day & also raised money for a deserving cause - Doing it for Laura.   She and her mum are members of Trawden AC.   If anyone wants to donate to this cause, please follow the link below.

https://www.gofundme.com/ngdq37-doing-it-for-laura

Last week, the Runners & Riders race was held to celebrate Ted Mason achieving the age of 40.    For many of us, it feels that Ted has always been around, because nearly a quarter of a century ago, he was taking part in the BOFRA races as a junior.  It was only when he moved up to the senior ranks that he started to blossom as a fell runner and he quickly earned his reputation of being the best descender bar none.  His successes are too numerous to mention, but one achievement he will be proud of is that he was won every race in the Upper Wharfedale Valley.

Not only is Ted an outstanding fell runner , but he always has a cheerful disposition and is always a pleasure to meet up with.  

Over the years, Andy Holden has taken many pictures of Ted on the fells and for his birthday, he has put together a montage of forty  of these pictures.  He has presented Ted with a large printed edition of this and a copy is above.

From everyone at Barlick, thank you Ted for some great memories over the years and we look forward to seeing you out again in the future in your new vet category.

They do not call it Windy Hill for nothing, let alone on a day like today.  What a race for Karen Lemon to make her comeback.  However, you have to make a start somewhere and it is good to see her back out racing.

168 Danny Butterworth 1:38:15
180 Karen Lemon 1:39:49

7 James Austin 19:54

20 Paul Elcock 22:21

52 James Austin 41:36 
248 Richard Starkie 51:37

29 Jethro Whitfield 25:37 
72 Shane Muller 28:55
104 Tony Duffy 31:11
165 Kristian Clayton 43:36 

Another outstanding performance from Lorraine Slater.  Eighth overall.  Second lady and first LV40.  Wow.

8 Lorraine Slater 4:07:13 (2nd Woman, 1st W40)

A great run from Ian Cocks in this race, coming home in 5th place.  But what might have been?  If he had not taken a wrong turn, he would probably have been third.  Still a good effort though.

5 Ian Cocks 1:36:32

19 Andy Berry 34:36
20 Tim Chadwick 34:57 
89 Hannah Newbold 46:19 

150 runners 

26 Ben Hoyle 3:13:39
55 Scott McCredie 3:29:11

80 Daren Holdsworth 30:38

1 Jon Cleaver 19:19 New PB
7 Molly Ralphson 23:08
26 Connor Fitzpatrick 27:07
34 George Fitzpatrick 28:08

3 Jon Cleaver 18:46

7 Dan Taylor 21:49

2 Andy Berry 18:17 New PB
3 Alex Mason 18:49 New PB
6 Tim Chadwick 19:13
11 Nicolas Kendall 20:56
13 Emma Bailey 21:14
18 Molly Ralphson 21:44
41 Connor Fitzpatrick 23:58 New PB
43 Jamie Fox 24:02
67 Graham Tarn 25:37
85 Nicola Muller 26:25
129 Gary Bailey 29:11
139 Anne Marie Beech 29:40
169 Kristian Clayton 31:56 New PB
170 Amanda Tarn 32:00
214 Graham Wadsworth 36:02

146 Tony Duffy 47:01
188 Kristian Clayton 1:08:38 

7 Ian Livesey 2:49:13

92 Christopher Whitfield 32:23
204 Kristian Clayton 50:44

Jon Cleaver had a cracking run at Inskip Half marathon, finishing 2nd to an excellent runner in Dave Rigby of Salford. His new PB of 72.32 is an improvement of four and a half minutes.

Brilliant win for Emma Taylor in this race.

26 Emma Taylor 1:29:04 (1st lady)

27 Connor Fitzpatrick 25:21

John Boothman has already taken part in some serious ultra challenges, but this was his most serious challenge to date.  A race of 268 miles from Derbyshire through mountainous country along the Pennine way and finishing almost at the Scottish border.  Not only that, but in the short wintry days of January.   A daunting challenge for anyone, let alone a chap in his fifties.  Early on, John started to suffer with his feet and it was not long after that that he started to lose toenails.  However, at each checkpoint, he had them re-bandaged up and he continued with his amazing resilience despite the pain and discomfort.  However, this prevented him from doing a bit of gentle jogging on the easy downhill stretches.  Not only that, but he was using walking poles and he started developing blisters on his hands from using those.  As he went through nearby Horton in Ribblesdale, he was looking quite determined and cheerful, but after walking through the night after only having one and a half hours sleep on the floor at Dufton, he was looking very tired when he arrived at the checkpoint at Alston.  However, a few hours sleep in the afternoon seemed to perk him up and he set off on the next long stretch which took him 20 hours to complete.  By this point, John was getting out of synch with the daylight hours.  At Alston, he slept during the day and he did the same at Bellingham.  In each case, he was only there around five hours, so his sleep time in each case must have been around four hours.  However, sleeping during the day meant that he was navigating some serious mountain routes in the dark.  From Alston, John seemed to pick up a new lease of life and from Bellingham, he set off with grit and determination, knowing that these last two legs could be crucial.  He was at that point in 8th position, but he was starting to close in on the runner in front.  At the last normal check point before the mountainous stretch to the finish, John was still lying in 8th position, but the chap in front was starting to tire, whilst John kept going.  By the climber's mountain hut just six miles from the finish, John was in 7th position and he left there at such a pace, no one was going to catch him.  So after six days on his feet with just over 21 hours rest, John came home where he had a shower and the medics once more gave some attention to his bleeding feet.  It was an amazing feat of endurance from an amazing athlete.

This was also an amazing race for another reason.  The winner was a woman, who not only won the race but she also beat the men's record by twelve hours.  In addition, she had recently given birth and was still breast feeding and she was expressing milk each day to keep her baby going until she completed the race.  When asked to comment on setting the new record, she allegedly said that she had to get the race finished with so that she could get home to feed her baby!  Her name is Jasmin Paris.  She is a truly remarkable woman and she is an inspiration to women everywhere.  

Following the resignation of Andy Berry from the role of team captain, the committee decided to split the role, awarding the job of road captain to Scott Boardman and that of fell captain to Luke Maude.