Lucas Payne has been nursing an injury for some time and he entered this race to see if his body was on the mend. Here is his report of the day.
It was a very cold, windy day. 224 runners all lined up, or should I say huddled together, off went the hooter and we were away.
The route was very interesting in that it was a mix of trail, soft sometimes very muddy ground and normal narrow tarmac roads, basically an uphill first section, then undulating and finally a killer hill at the end. Super views were the order of the day.
I was delighted at finishing 8th in a time of 38:09. However, I was brought back to planet Earth when the fellow who had pursued me relentlessly from the start finished just behind me. Heasked my age to see if I had robbed him of a prize. I said that I was 44. He said "That's fine, I am a vet 55. OK, I may look like Gollum off Lord Of The Rings, but that made me realize that I was almost dead ... you have to laugh.
My lady wife and her chum also finished their first 10k race in 1 hour. Round of applause. You never know, we may tempt them to sign up to BFR.
The Race Director and his colleagues really did organise a super event, very well marshalled. Hot drinks, flapjack and bananas for the finishers - many thanks to them all.
This event is over 60 miles, involving some very hard rugged moorland and climbing over 11,000 feet. As you might expect, Mick Plummer was there, but unusually for Mick, he retired at Cray, as he was not feeling well.
However Gareth Bradley stayed the course and completed it in 17 hrs 41 minutes. But for the grouping time that he incurred, he would have completed it 25 minutes quicker.
In his first race for the club, Chris Smedley came 31st out of 158 finishers, with a time of 1:11:58
This race was postponed from 24 March. Our sole representative was Andrew Carson and he had a PB, finishing in 40th position out of 808 finishers.
40 Andrew Carson 40:17
We had eight Barlickers entered in this race. Two did not start, Pete Jackson due to injury and John Boothman on doctor's orders but he joined the supporters who were out there to cheer on those who did take part. Only four completed the course and we have no note at the moment why the other two did not finish. The times were:
Nick Treitl 3:30:48
Andy Berry 4:15:34
Michael Thistlethwaite 4:34:29
Tom Bebee 5:01:54
Mark Sandamas DNF
Richard Treitl DNF
Barlick were 35th team.
Barlick had three teams in these relays. Two conventional teams and what was supposed to be a family team, but it was registered as a mixed team. The details are:
| A Team | Pos | Time |
| Andy Berry | 17 | 11:24 |
| Michael Keegan | 21 | 11:16 |
| Rob Weir | 21 |
10:58 |
| B Team | Pos | Time |
| Simon Kelly | 33 | 11:51 |
| Andrew Carson | 22 | 11:16 |
| Scott Baistow | 25 | 12:01 |
| Mixed Team | Pos | Time |
| Sam Wadsworth | 13 | 10:34 |
| Fiona Brotherton | 75 | 19:52 |
| Sam Wadsworth | 61 | 10:26 |
In 1999, on the old course, Sam Wadsworth won the egg stage in 3:26, only 4 seconds outside the record. Inspired by memories of former glories, he started at a furious pace, hoping that once more, he might do well in this part of the race. Going up the hill, he was second behind Tom Adams of Ilkley, but from there on, his advancing years and lack of training gradually took their toll. The mad dash at the start took too much out of him and his overall race time was down. However, further down the field, Fiona Brotherton continues to improve with each race.
49 Sam Wadsworth 18:43
308 Fiona Brotherton 34:31
Another week - another triathlon. This week four members had a go. They finisheded as follows:
10 Chris Smedley 1:16:18
11 Mark Sandamas 1:16:25
76 Sam Berry 1:33:52
92 Des Walkden 1:37:14
Three Barlickers went down to London for this event:
Ian Livesey 3:15:47
John Boothman 3:28:45
Martin Carson 4:15:04
A lovely sunny day saw two Barlickers turn out for this race, which apart from slushy ice in a couple of gateways, was run in ideal conditions. At the summit, Andy Berry was 54th, but lost a few places on the descent to finish in 59th place.
Rachel Lowther turned in 223rd place and again lost a few places on the descent to finish 231st.
Final places and times:
59 Andy Berry 22:33
231 Rachel Lowther 29:02 (28th lady)
With all races cancelled this weekend, a group of intrepid Barlick Fell Runners went up Weets on a training run. The average age of the group was around thirty. The snow reduced their average mental age to around seven. The group was Sarah Tippler, Andy Berry, Nick Treitl, Michael Thistlethwaite and Andrew Carson.
The pub run with a difference proved to be very popular, with the Chilli Pepper at Earby completely booked up with runners and some of their partners, combining the usual Wednesday run with a good social evening.
The results are at last out for this event and reveal that Rachel Lowther came 12th out of the 19 ladies in the race.
dam Osborne of Leeds City won this event. Four Barlickers turned out for this race and their times and positions were as follows:
24 Andy Berry 2:20:55
84 John Boothman 2:39:21
126 Michael Thistlethwaite 2:51:39
161 Dave Halliday 3:02:08
There was just one Barlicker out in this race who was Michael Alexander. He is not a V50 as described on the results and he finished 375th out of 1,039 in a time of 55:36.
There were some class runners out in the a field of nearly 200 who entered this race. First place went to Rob Hope, who was followed home by Lloyd Taggart and Carl Bell. There was a good turnout of Barlickers for this race with three, led by Nick Treitl finishing in the top twenty. Rachael Lowther picked a tough race for the first one in which to represent her new club and she put in a great performance.
The Barlickers finished as follows:
11 Nick Treitl 1:13:41
14 Mark Sandamas 1:16:46
16 Stephen Chew 1:17:01
34 Sam Wadsworth 1:22:40
58 Andrew Carson 1:26:57
60 Dan Taylor 1:28:34
66 Andy Hirst 1:30:07
76 John Boothman 1:31:29
86 Michael Thistlethwaite 1:32:37
91 Des Walkden 1:33:22
97 Pete Jackson 1:34:50
114 Dave Halliday 1:36:39
115 Glenn Whittaker 1:36:49
139 Craig Childs 1:41:47
162 Richard Treitl 1:48:51
172 Rachael Lowther 1:51:22
176 Robert Frederick Jackson 1:59:31
DNF Rob Weir
It would appear that Barlick were the second men's team behind Wharfedale.
As you would have expected, Mick Plummer shunned the short Stan Bradshaw race for the 32 mile Haworth Hobble. Official times and positions are awaited, but Mick finished in around 6 hrs 47 mins.
After the run last night, names were drawn out of the hat for who will represent the club in this race. The lucky members are:
M Thistlethwaite, S Bairstow, G Shaw, J Boothman, I Livesey, G Whittaker, S Chew, A Berry, D Haliday, Sgt Chew, C Child and L McCash.
The reserves are: B Jackson, S Wadsworth, A Carson, R Weir and D Walkden.
Sam will shortly put the parings together and decide who will be running which leg.
Des Walkden took part in this race and finished 58th out of 374 competitors and was 6th in his age group. In addition, he knocked 2 mins 33 seconds off his previous best time to set a pb of 41:55. As Des put it, "I think that the Sgt Chew training sessions are starting to pay off."
Any Witch Way, But Loose
Simon Franklin travelled a fair distance to get to this event, but he thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that he has written an account of his night.
There was a turnout of 33 runners for the first of this type of orienteering event. Competitors ran it as individuals, in pairs or in teams. Once your time had started, you were given a map with locations marked on it, each with a varying points value and you quickly had to decide your strategy to amass the most points by visiting various check points. Penalty points were deducted for being over the allotted time of one hour. It was a fun event, with much debate in the pub afterwards about the choice of route and check points visited.
The winner was Mark Nutter of Clayton who has a history of excelling in this type of event. He finished just ahead of Peter Stobbs with Sam Wadsworth in third place. A good run saw Jean Brown finish 1st lady and 4th overall and the first pair were Debbie Gowans and Vickie Mousley, who were fifth overall.
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.