This year, this was a championship race and attracted a talented field. As a result, the ladies and the men ran separately. The ladies were first to go and Victoria Wilkinson led the field up to the summit, determined to retain the trophy which she had just returned. She descended as if the world was on her tail, but in fact, by this time time she had built up a good lead and she ran out an easy winner.
Further down the field, our own Sarah Tipler was having a great run and was in 10th place on the ascent to the summit. Unfortunately, on the tops, she lost a place, but still finished in 11th place against the top runners in the fell running world. Quite an amazing result. Rachel Lowther looked to be going comfortably on the ascent and descended like a true fell runner to beat her previous time on a course which had been altered to make the finish much more difficult and challenging.
The men's race was like a war. The field was tightly packed on the ascent, but by the time they returned, three runners, Tom Addison, Rob Hope and Simon Bailey were in a race of their own. They were neck and neck and no quarter was been given by anyone. It was all exciting stuff to watch. In the end, Tom Addison ran out the winner, but it was a great race between all three.
Of the Barlickers, Nick Treitl had a good run to finish in 44th position with Rob Weir the second Barlicker. The times and places for everyone was:
Ladies Race
1 Victoria Wilkinson 38:54
11 Sarah Tipler 42:49
86 Rachel Lowther 53:26
Men's Race
1 Tom Addison 32:55
44 Nick Treitl 37:37
116 Rob Weir 41:41
253 Pete Jackson 49:55
264 Dave Halliday 50:39
270 Glenn Whittaker 50:57
325 Richard Treitl 59:00
The full results are in the results section
4 Des Walkden 19:59 New PB
7 James Fent 20:35 New PB
Andy Berry took his group out on the 5K measured section of the canal, but they ran it in the reverse order, that is Barnoldswick to Foulridge. As a result, what is an easy downhill start becomes a hard uphill finish and so the times are not strictly comparable with those that were recorded last year. The group did well and it would be interesting if, in a few weeks, the same group ran this course in the opposite direction.
Although these times are not strictly comparable, they have been added to the record of timed training runs which is accessible from the Training Page.
Pub Runs tend to come and go, supported by a bunch of stalwarts. Those regulars know what a good evening it can be, incorporating a bit of light training with the friendly banter of fellow runners. To give none regulars a taste of what goes on Stephen Chew has written an account of the above event.
129 Jean Rawlinson 57:05
13 Nick Treitl 33:38
The race was won by Will Smith of Keighley & Craven in a time of 34:28.
2 Julian Hood 35:25
8 Luke Maude 38:11
37 Jean Rawlinson 1:20:55 1st FV60
26 Rob Weir 2:21:03
31 Andy Berry 2:22:09
101 John Boothman 2:45:06
131 Dave Halliday 2:54:03
181 Rachel Lowther 3:30:53
The winner of this race was Ian Harding of Morpeth Harriers in a time of 1:17:14.
Richard Starkie finished in 170th position in a time of 1:46:04, which included PB splits at the 10k and half marathon distances.
There were around 1,100 finishers.
3 Derek WALKDEN 20:01 New PB
Last September, Barlick Fell Runners entered a team in the Mid Lancs Cross Country League. This league is divided into four divisions and not unreasonably, all new teams to the league have to start in the lowest division. The original intention was to run four out of the six races. However, as the season unfolded, enthusiasm built and the club fielded a full team in each race. As a result, Barlick finished the season as Division Four Champions with 39 points, ahead of Wigan with 25 points who were runners up. Both clubs are now promoted to Division Three. The presentation evening was the culmination of the season and saw a selection of the squad receive their medals and the winner's shield.
95 Jean Rawlinson 1:11:24
The early warm start to March became a distant memory to contestants in this 10 miles / 3100 ft race. The race organizer agonized about the conditions and in the end decided to shorten the route slightly. However, the runners still had to contend with freezing pools and and deep peat bog on the snow free lower section, whilst on the higher ground, the snow gradually increased to 8 inches, with extremely poor visibility at the turn around at Llyn Aran Benllyn.
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.