Last year, we said that we would improve with more experience of this race and so it turned out. From our 18th place finish last year, we moved up ten places for a top ten finish - a top ten dominated by some seriously strong teams.
Marc Hartley & Julian Hood were our fist leg runners and they handed over in 10th position. The second leg runners of Stephen Chew and Matt Lalor had the teams in front in their sight and they were already closing the gap on the long upward pull from the change over point. In the course of the leg, a lot of teams changed places, with one team flying past our runners as they tip toed down the tricky descent from Thornthwaite Beacon. However they must have passed a few teams themselves, as they handed over in 8th place to Luke Maude and Shaun Chew. They disappeared up Red Screes into the mist and were not to be seen again until the handover at Sykeside. They completed the leg in a good time of just over 56 minutes, pulling back another place in the process. However, at the handover, there was a problem with the dibber. As Shaun went to insert his dibber into the machine, he realised that it had fallen to pieces and that the end was missing. This caused some confusion with the marshals as to what to do and they eventually handed them a replacement and sent them on their way. However, over a minute in time and two places were lost at the changeover as a result. Nick Treitl and Jimmy Craig set off determined to regain those positions and found themselves chasing the Bingley last leg pair of Rob Jebb and Ian Holmes. On the final descent, they came to a gate just behind them and Jimmy jumped the gate to get his nose in front. Ian Holmes was still hold of the gate when Nick did the same. It was then a sprint to the finish, with our pair just managing to keep their noses in front until the finish line.
Our Leg Times and Places were:
10 Marc Hartley & Julian Hood 41:03
8 Stephen Chew & Matt Lalor 1:13:21 1:54:24
7 Luke Maude & Shaun Chew 56:26 2:50:50
8 Jimmy Craig & Nick Treitl 1:17:33 4:08:23
Top Ten Teams
1 Borrowdale 3:39:59
2 Calder Valley 3:42:22
3 Dark Peak 3:50:44
4 Wharfedale 3:58:40
5 Ambleside 4:00:53
6 Dark Peak Vets 4:07:34
7 Keswick 4:07:36
8 Barlick 4:08:23
9 Bingley 4:08:29
10 Westerlands 4:10:03