Craig Shearer set off on this race like he meant business, taking an early lead. He maintained this lead up the hill out of Silsden and right up the Nab on to the moor top. He was going well and looked like he was going to completely boss this race. But, being out in front means that you have to know where you are going and on the moor top, he went astray. To get back on track meant climbing a gate covered in barbed wire and once back on course, he found that he had lost his leading position. At this point, he was very annoyed with himself for throwing away a lead which he had worked so hard to achieve. Everyone is different in how they deal with such a situation. Some people just give up thinking that they have thrown away the race. Craig could have been forgiven for taking such an approach as the race leader was now Andrew Cairns of Wharfedale and he is no slouch when it comes to fell running. But Craig turned the anger with himself to his advantage. He was so furious that he put that fury to work and chased Andrew down and once more took the lead, so that by the time they came to descend the Nab, he had built up a lead of several seconds. One tends to think of Craig as a bit of a speed merchant on a good surface, but not particularly fast on descent on the fells, but he came down the Nab so quickly that he could have given Ted Mason a run for his money. When he reached the lane at the bottom of the Nab, he had built up a lead of ten seconds. But from then on, the surface suited Craig and in the end, he ran out a comfortable winner, by almost a minute. It was nice to see Craig take the honours, but he had to work really hard for it.
Next home for Barlick was Julian Hood, who finished in 6th place and first M40. He seemed to have had a good race, although he, himself was a little bit disappointed with it. He was shortly followed by Jethro Whitfield in eighth place who was reasonably satisfied with how he had performed.
1 Craig Shearer 43:01
6 Julian Hood 46:18 (1st M40)
8 Jethro Whitfield 47:27 (2nd M40)
24 Robert Cranham 52:01
54 John Boothman 1:02:33 (2nd M60)
