The end result was that Barlick were 19th overall in 4:29:37.
It was a day of highs and lows. Everyone set off from Patterdale and there was Barlick, the new boys, in second place, as they made their way up the steep ascent to Boredale Hause. The commentator on the loud speaker at Patterdale was perplexed. His commentary was, "Borrowdale are in the lead, closely followed by... er ... Barlick...". Gary Shaw and Stephen Chew, first leg runners, then moved into the lead and things were looking good. But the Ian Hodgson relay is not so simple. Clag covered the tops of the hills and suddenly our leaders were not so sure of the route. They waited for others to catch them up and then they discovered that lines which looked good in a recce were not quite so good on the race day. The long and the short of it was that at the changeover at Hartsop, Barlick were in 8th place.
Sam & Scott then took over and ascended into the clag and into the head wind which now included rain. Sadly this leg lost many places, although they were not the only ones to do so. Helm Hill, who were 10th at Hartsop suddenly found themselves in 1st place, much to the surprise of their 3rd leg runners who were not ready to set off. Our third leg team of Andy Hirst & Pete Jackson set off into the rain and mist in 23rd place. Despite their years, their experience of Lakeland races soon made itself felt and they gained two places to hand over in 21st place.
Nick Treitl and Shaun Chew set off on the final leg, again in poor conditions and an exciting sprint finish saw them finish just in 19th position, just in front of Ilkley.
Although we hoped that we might do better in this race, given that we are a new club, we perhaps did not do too bad against clubs with runners who have years of experience in this event. Afterwards, everyone agreed that we learnt a lot on the day and that next year, with a little bit of experience ourselves under our belt, we will do much better.
The race was extremely well organised, there was a great atmosphere and it was great taking part in this Lakeland classic. Roll on next year.