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.
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.
Barlick Fell Runner vests are now starting to appear all over and another one was spotted at this race, worn by Junior Member, James Daggett. He finished the U12 race in 51st position in a time of 14:26.
Another impressive outing from Karl Gray who just managed to pip Tim Ellis to the post. With Alex Whittem coming third, this gave Calder Valley the top three places.
Of the Barlickers, Shaun Chew was in 12th position approaching Flower Scar Summit and then, having taken a different route to the majority of runners, he found himself in 22nd place. However, he clawed his way back through the field to finish in an impressive 5th position. The positions of all the Barlick runners were as follows:
5 Shaun Chew 53:46
39 Sam Wadsworth 57:44
40 Andy Berry 57:55
93 Luke Wallwork 64:09
129 Dave Halliday 68:41
139 Pete Jackson 69:42
153 Craig Childs 71:49
162 Glenn Whittaker 72:38
Two Barlick members, Andy Berry & Michael Thistlethwaite, along with ten other attendees, went along to this course, which was held in the Peak District. When the course was concluded, a competition was held and each member had to go out into the Peak District and visit 15 locations. The Barlickers took the first two places. It will be interesting to see how these two fare in the Night Points Scoring Event.
Des Walkden is the latest member to take part in this Saturday morning 5K race. For his first attempt, he finished in 15th position in a time of 20:50.
The main aims of the club are to increase the participation of running in Barnoldswick and to keep organised running as accessible as possible.