Woodentops Men's Race Pictures - Album One

Woodentops Women's Race Pictures - Album One

What a day.  First of all, it was, baking hot sunshine, then a torrential downpour with thunder storms.  The ladies were up first and as usual, Victoria Wilkinson was way out in front and came into the finishing field with not another runner in sight.   Second home was Sarah McCormack of Ambleside.  She was the first of three Ambleside runners to finish in the top seven, which enabled the club to easily win the team race. Third home was Nichola Jackson of Preston.  As part of the impressive Ambleside team, Lou Roberts was first W45, as well as being 4th overall.  Another runner to catch the eye was young Hannah Russell who, despite her young years, managed a top ten finish.  Of the local runners, Sarah Tipler came home in 14th place.    A few of the ladies were really struggling with the heat, with two runners being taken to hospital with Heat Stroke.

 The men's race went ahead in completely different conditions. with thunder and lightning as well as the rain which came as a tremendous relief.   Chris Arthur of Bowland ran a stormer and took the win, ahead of Jamie Parkinson of Pudsey & Bramley and third place, Carl Bell of Keswick.  He was the first of four runners from Keswick to finish inside the top thirteen, which enabled them to easily run out the team winners.  It was a particularly impressive run from young John Spill from Oxford University,  who is in the U23 Category, yet came home in 4th position against the elite of the Fell Running world. Another impressive MU23 was Matthew Elkington of Dark Peak, who finished in 7th place.  These are two talented youngsters to look out for in the future.   Of the local runners, Thomas Corrigan had a great run finishing 6th overall.  

Thanks must go to the marshals, landowners and sponsors of the race which were Agrispares, Weston's, Riley and Shutt and Pearsons Farm Supplies.  

The results for these races are as follows:

Women's Race

Men's Race

14 Carl Pawson 36:16

For this weekend, Garry Bailey, his wife Emma together with Scott Boardman went down to Wales where they camped over, having borrowed a tent from Pete Jackson.  After it rained, the tent was renamed "Leaky McLeakface".  

As for the race, it is the UK's toughest half marathon, with  a 1:6 gradient after 11 miles.  Scott and Emma ran it together and after injury, Emma finished 3rd lady overall and 2nd in category.

56 Scott Boardman 1:48:50
57 Emma Bailey 1:48:50 (3rd woman, 2nd FV40)

439 finishers.

Report by Stephen Chew

Well a good day which could have been so much better.  Firstly,  thank you to all the runners who ran and the guys that came in at the last minute, even when not fully fit.  All the runners do the club proud and it was great to get a full ladies team out and finish the race this year.  As you can see from the results, the club had a good solid day with the A team finishing 2nd for the 3rd year running.  That however is only half the story.  Any club with three men's teams in these relays has to find 36 runners and quite often, people have to be drafted in at the last minute.

In the men's A team, there were some great performances, especially from runners who were not fully fit, but turned out on the day to represent their club.  However, despite what was a great team effort, events on the day conspired against us and once more we were runners up to Calder Valley.

The B team also put in a cracking team effort and by Blackshaw Head were in 9th position, but they slipped later in the race and finished 13th.  The early details and finishing times are as follows:

1 Calder Valley 5:56:55
2 Barlick Fell Runners 6:04:34
3 Wharfedale Harriers 6:10:30
13 Barlick "B" Team 6:58:44
27 Barlick "C" Team 7:32:23
54 Barlick Ladies 8:20:39 (5th Ladies Team)

Further details follow.

This is a 10.5 mile race with 3002 ft of ascent

237 Richard Treitl 2:37:07

267 finishers