Ambleside were the hosts for this year's relay event in the idyllic town of Grasmere. Over 1,400 runners descended on the sleepy town to partake in the 4 leg Fell relay. For those who aren’t familiar with the format, every year, Leg 1 is a solo leg with a defined/flagged route, Leg 2 is a pairs leg with a defined/flagged route, Leg 3 is a navigational Leg where runners are given a map with a series of check points on as they start their leg and are then expected to navigate their way between these, finally there is Leg 4 which is a solo leg with a defined/flagged route.
On the day BFR entered a ladies team, men’s A & B team and also an MV40 team. Leg 1 saw Jon Cleaver lead in the men, closely followed by Tim Chadwick and Virgil Barton with Jacqueline Collins representing the ladies.
Leg 2 saw Paula & Heather head out up the hill along with James Austin & Zac Kaye for the B team and the 2 Dave’s (Poole & Smurf) for the A team. It’s worth mentioning that the 2 Dave’s had a great leg coming in 22nd fastest from 248 teams - beating teams such as Ribble Valley. Great run!
Leg 3 (the dreaded Nav!)......Andy B and Nick T got round nice and cleanly for the A team, both Dave Halliday and Pete Beresford were 2nd fastest for BFR with a sub 2 hour run, then an AMAZING run from Vic Peel and Jen Hird saw the ladies come home just over 2 hours and 14th in the female open category....brilliant! Now for the bad news.....Pete Jackson and Gary "Navigational Expert" Bradley were the last BFR team home and got suitably ribbed by their team mates!
Leg 4 was the quickest leg of the day, we had Stephen Shorrocks for the vets, Emma Taylor for the ladies, Nicolas Kendall for the B team and Like Maude for the A team. Notably Emma was 20th in the female category and Luke was 15th in the Male open category - 2 top quality runs!
So, in summary, a great club day with BFR mixing it up with the top end as usual. Next year will be better still!
Andy B (Fell Captain and navigational god).
34 Barlick A 4:25:21 28th Male Open Team
96 Barlick B 5:14:20 9th Open Team
108 Barlick MV40 5:19:15 21st MV40 Team
171 Barlick Ladies 5:53:29 21st Female Open Team
Leg 1
57 A Team Jon Cleaver 55:50
64 B Team Tim Chadwick 56:25
75 MV40 Team Virgil Barton 57:09
145 Ladies Team Jacqueline Collins 1:07:08
Leg 2
22 A Team David Poole / David Mirfield 1:08:21
133 B Team Zac Kaye / James Austin 1:26:57
138 MV40 Team John Boothman / Andrew Smith 1:27:41
218 Ladies Team Paula Cullen / Heather Driver 1:46:01
Leg 3
56 A Team Andy Berry / Nick Treitl 1:38:15
144 B Team Dave Halliday / Pete Beresford 1:58:15
157 Ladies Team Jennifer Hird / Victoria Peel 2:02:49
181 MV40 Team Gary Bradley / Pete JAckson 2:07:28
Leg 4
15 A Team Luke Maude 43:00
49 MV40 Team Stephen Shorrocks 46:57
99 B Team Nick Kendall 57:43
142 Ladies Team Emma Taylor 57:21