These results are a little late in being posted, as Abigail forgot to mention her club when she registered. It was her first time in the park runs and she finished as follows:
51 Abigail PARK 36:26
This league is divided into four divisions and any new clubs joining the league must start in division four. Unfortunately, when the club results are published, they do not separate them out into the different divisions and they are all clumped together. To make matters worse, they do not publish the divisional tables as the season progresses and it is only now that these tables have been compiled. These show that the top of Division Four is as follows:
| Club | Races | Points |
| Barlick Fell Runners | 3 | 21 |
| Liverpool Harriers & AC | 2 | 20 |
| Lancaster University | 2 | 17 |
One thing we have learnt so far is that results can be very unpredictable. Everyone felt that the race at Hyndburn was very tough, which it was, but we came away with 9 points. On the other hand, the team performed well at Liverpool, yet only amassed 4 points. That was down to the fact that it attracted a lot of local clubs, many of whom ran in Division Four. If a lesson is to be learnt from this, it is that we need to turn up at every race, because at the end of the season, they only include your best four races and low scoring races, such as Liverpool, will be ignored and you cannot predict in advance those races where you will score well.
We have made a good start to this league, but the pressure is on us to maintain the momentum.
The next race in the series is on 11 January at Barrow in Furness.
Membership of the club has increased steadily over the past twelve months to the point where we have now signed up member number 100, who is Charlotte Perry.
It does not feel like 12 months since a small group of runners came together to form Barlick Fell Runners and few of those at that initial meeting ever expected that the club would grow so quickly.
There was a good turn out of 17 runners for this head torch 5K run. Six were first timers and there were PBs for:
Rachel Lowther 23:22
Linda Bostock 23:33
Emma Bailey 24:02
Lucy Beresford 25:55
James Stead 27:00
Helen Stead 30:00
Full Results
Tom Mason was our sole representative in this race and he finished in 189th position with a time of 41:56.
The junior races saw the debut run of Cerri Starkie on a muddy course with one large hill. She was happy to complete the run and even happier that she did not finish last.
Whilst one group of Barlickers were taking part in the Gathering Winter Fools Relay, another were at Hyndburn for the next race in this series and it was nice to see Fiona Raby sporting a Barlick vest as our first lady representative in this series. It was probably the hardest race of the series so far and she finished in 50th position out of a field of 121, with a time of 32:13. The positions and times of our men were as follows:
37 Nick Treitl 41:21
69 Rob Weir 43:45
110 Andy Carson 46:31
119 Stuart Bryan 47:18
125 Dan Taylor 47:30
147 Des Walkden 49:15
162 Scott Basistow 51:04
174 Michael Thistlethwaite 52:05
181 James Fent 52:37
John Boothman enjoyed this race so much last year that he returned to give it another go. Last year's snow gave way to high winds which made the ascent very tough, but propelled everyone back down again at a high speed.
Some confusion with the route saw first past the post Rhys Findlay-Robinson of Dark Peak forfeit the win, which was awarded to Danny Hope. John finished in 75th position in a time of 56:55.
There were two great team performances today. For the men, Gary Shaw and Matt Lalor set off well and on their leg trailed just behind the Bingley A team, a position they maintained until the end, finishing in front of the Wharfedale team, who were third. They then handed over to Julian Hood and Stephen Chew who had closed down the gap with Bingley by the time they got to the 'Murder Mile'. At that stage, there was no sign of Wharfedale and Bingley B team had moved into 3rd place. The runners disappeared out of sight as they went across the moors, but when they reappeared, approaching the Keighley Gate Road, they had opened up a huge gap on Bingley and they handed over a three minute lead to third leg team, Andy Berry and Lucas Payne. They set off with much determination and maintained this lead to give a two minute lead to the final runners Shaun Chew & Sam Wadsworth. In the course of this leg, Bingley regained the lead and went on to win the race with a 2 minute lead, which, after the excitement of our strong lead in the middle of the race, was a little disappointing, but on reflection, it was a tremendous achievement for the club, that after only one year in existence, it could push a top club like Bingley so closely.
At the start of the race, there was also much excitement that we were able to field a ladies team and with so many of the team new to running, we were hoping that they would get round and finish in a reasonable position. Well the ladies did the club proud. Rachel Lowther and Linda Bostock took the first leg and handed over to Sarah Tipler and Helen Glover. They ran a tremendous leg, pushing the ladies team into third place. They handed over to Sarah Jarvis and Lucy Beresford who had a good run to hold on to this lead to hand over to final leg runners Emma Bailey and Helen Stead. They ran their hearts out and Helen was absolutely exhausted at the end, but they had done it - they had held on to 3rd place. This was an amazing performance from our girls and augurs well for development for our ladies group in the future.
The top places were:
Men
1 Bingley 'A' 3:23:11
2 Barlick 3:25:17
3 Bingley 'B' 3:37:28
Women
10 Wharfedale 4:18:14
11 Bingley 4:20:55
16 Barlick 5:00:27
If you are wanting a club vest, these are available from the Club Chairman, Shaun Chew. The cost is £20 for adults and £16.70 for juniors. Please do not leave ordering your vest until the last minute, as they sometimes need to be ordered.
There were lots of Barlickers out around the town helping to marshal this race, but a few did actually take part. The race attracted 300 entrants of all types, from out and out runners, to joggers and walkers. Young children took part as did those whose youth was more than a few years ago and they all came together to support this cause.
Out in front, it looked serious. Barlick member Andy Carson took an early lead, but a young runner, George Graham-Roe, stuck with him. Coming back up the hill into the town from Salterforth, Andrew was still going at a fair pace, but this young runner went past him, leaving Andrew thinking that he had a real challenge on his hands. However, the fast start and the fast climb up the hill seemed to take it out of this plucky young runner and Andrew regained the lead, never to relinquish it again. In the meantime, Luke Wallwork was lying in 3rd place watching this battle taking place before him. As this young runner started to flag, he closed in on him, moving into 2nd place which he retained until the end, resulting in a Barlick one-two.
In the ladies group Linda Bostock was going well and she finished first lady.
Once the serious runners were out of the way, it was the turn of the fun runners and the walkers and there was a party atmosphere about the event. It was good to see young Barlickers, Tabitha Berry and Jenna Boothman in this group.
The race finished in the town square where there was live music and everyone was milling around recounting their experiences of the day.
The event was extremely well organised and hopefully has raised some money for this excellent charity.
Des Walkden and Stuart Bryan entered this 7k Trail Run / 20k Mountain Bike Ride / 6k Trail Run that is the Kielder Duathonlon. This was the first duathlon for Stuart Bryan. The conditions were much more favourable than the sleet and snow that greeted competitors last year.
Des Walkden finished 36th in 2.31.20, managing to knock 19 mins off last year's time.
Stuart Bryan finished 78th in 2.49.20. Stuart was flying and breaking various strava hill climb records, but unfortunately was set back by a puncture. It was Stuart's first off-road duathlon and apart from the puncture, he thoroughly enjoyed the event. On the other hand, he also learnt what it is like to get "jelly legs".
Both are looking forward to the next race in the series at Grizedale.
Total 148 solo finishers.
Monday 2 December was the first AGM of the club and it was good to review the progress of the club and look at future plans going forward.
Since the club came into being 12 months ago, it has grown beyond all expectations and now has 97 members, made up of seniors, juniors and none running members. As the year progressed, we have attracted more women members and is a trend we would like to see continue.
In the course of the year, we have acquired a lot of essential equipment, flags for races, a marquee, a gazebo, a print out timer and countless other bits and bobs that are the essential paraphernalia of a running club.
We have done this on the back of a membership fee of £5.00 and, as the treasurer Glenn Whittaker reported, we still have a bank balance of over £1,700.
In the course of the year, we hosted an FRA championship race and next year, we will be hosting a total of five races.
Although we were formed as a fell running club, we have attracted runners from all disciplines and we have a team in the Mid-Lancs Cross Country League. We have also attracted road runners.
Runners participating in Cross Country or Road Races have to be registered with English Athletics and in the current year, such runners have paid the registration fee of £10 themselves. We wish to retain the membership fee at a level of £5, as we do not want the level of fees to be a deterrent to someone joining a club. However, in the coming year, for members who need to be registered with E.A., they can either continue to pay the fee themselves or the club will pay it for them, PROVIDED that they help out in one of the club races. In this way, we hope that it will encourage members to become involved with the running of the club.
To reflect the differing interests in the club and also the differing abilities of members, next year the club championship will not just be restricted to fell races, but will include road races, cross country races and park runs.
The existing committee and officers were re-elected unopposed.
The full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the membership page once Stephen Chew has had a chance to get them together.
This race takes place in the scenic area of Bilsborough near Preston.
We had one runner in the race and he finished as follows:
69 John Boothman MV50 1:09:29
345 finishers
In the autumnal conditions, getting a PB gets harder, but despite that, there were two new PBs this week.
4 Lucas PAYNE 19:48
14 John BOOTHMAN 22:00
58 James STEAD 30:16 New PB
59 Helen STEAD 30:20 New PB
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.