1 Marc HARTLEY 16:54

Eight brave souls attended the pub run in 3rd world Earbyoathia last night with a couple of stragglers trapping for drink afterwards.  There were three welcome backs last night as Satnav returned, as did Lee McCash and Doc Bryan. The pace was once again set by the eager pairing of Andy Collins and Mike "Eager Spaniel" Sellors.  Hoping that the gruelling ultra which took him about 5 days to complete would render the exuberant Sellors tired.  This was soon dispelled as false hope as he quickly made his way up the track chatting away and slowly dropping everyone one by one as they went straight up the race route to the pinnacle on Pinhaw moor.   It was at this point we noticed Satnav was struggling a tad and he quickly horrified us by showing us why.  He opened his top and once we had got over the fact his chest looking like a heavily picked at carcass we saw the bruising he had from falling off his bike.  Obviously in true Barlick fashion he was ridiculed for his bad fortune and once again we were on our way. The next incident of note was that of the man they call Halliday.  As we were running through a bit of bog to us normal sized men it quickly became apparent that Dave had found a man trap.  Quite why he squealed nobody knows.  Sellors nearly stopped to help him from his self made muddle, but quickly thought better of it and continued on.  The finish of the run was met with glee and a well earned beer in The Red Lion, or so we thought!  Once inside the pungent aroma of damp filled our freshly emptied nostrils.  The key to a good pint here is let a couple order one first and then follow them so you know it hasn't been sat in the lines all week.   Usually I would be over the moon at The Doc buying me a pint but he was onto my plan and quickly despatched the first one into my shaking hand.  Once arse had found chair I waited for it to clear.  Sweat was literally rolling down my forehead as McCash smiled and offered me a pork scratching.  The rest of lads sat down, but to our collective horror it seemed it was not just my pint.  I tried to drink it but to be honest I would rather of tried one them grubs in the bushtucker trials.  Quickly thinking about our bowel movements for the next day, we shot out and retired to the Punch Bowl.  I have to say a very nice pub and this will be where we go on our next venture into the third world state of Earbyoathia.  Greeted by a lovely young lady doing her ironing behind the bar.  The first man this week to hear the crack of the whip was Big Dave Halliday.  As the phones rolled out it quickly dawned on us that Screw "manflu" Driver was now present in the pub.  He was obviously making sure Ingham hadn't trapped before sampling the delights of the Earby hostelries.   The pub run moves to Kelbrook next week.  Will Jock make it?  Will Jack Ingham grow a pair? Will we have new blood to heckle?  Who knows?

Sam Gibbs was visiting a friend at the weekend and his friend promptly entered him in a local race but forgot to put him down as a Barlick Fell Runner.  Sam had a good run finishing in 3rd place which was a good run on the back of his good performance at the Three Peaks Cyclo Cross last week.

3 Sam Gibbs 1:03:12

This is a hard and challenging race run over a testing route, albeit with beautiful scenery, if the weather is favourable.

Each year that we have completed this race, we have managed to improve our time and this year was no exception, finishing it for the first time under 4 hours.  You would think that this would lead to an improved position, but this was not to be the case.  This year, there were some very competitive teams out and Barlick finished 12th out of 70 teams in a time of 3:59:06.

Gary Shaw and Marc Hartley ran the first leg, handing over to Chris Smale and Tom Corrigan in 16th place.  They took just a few seconds longer for this first leg than last year, but this leg is slightly longer than previously as it now starts on the field. 

Tom set off on the second leg, with a scorching pace up the hill, with Chris trailing in his wake.  Chris eventually caught him up and passed him, but on the descent to the Kirstone Inn, Tom once more took the lead and they handed over in 16th position.

Shaun Chew & Luke Maude then took over the baton with Luke immediately showing his intent by leaving Shaun trailing behind up the very steep ascent and getting amongst the two teams in front of them.  Once on the top, Shaun caught up his team mate, although at one stage, they ended up running on opposite sides of the beck.  They handed over to the last leg runners of Jimmy Craig and Nick Treitl in 13th place.

The last pair gained another place, but couldn't quite catch Rossendale and Carnethy. 

A great performance from everyone and it is a tribute to the quality of the teams out on the day that this performance was only good enough to secure 12th place.

There was tough competition at the front of the field with Borrowdale winning the race for the 19th time finishing just ahead of Keswick and Dark Peak.