This year, the race became the world's largest marathon with 55,646 finishers.  John Boothman went over with friends and family to take part and here is his account of race day.

A change to tarmac this weekend for Sam who entered this race to join a few workmates who were doing this race.  It is a ten mile race through lovely countryside with a few hills in it like the Birstwith Brute which is a never ending climb out of Birstwith.  This may be the last time that this race takes place as it starts and finishes at Ripley Castle and although they have lived there since 1309, the Ingleby family have now sold it and it is not clear whether the new owners want to continue with the race.  That would be a shame as it is a lovely race (for tarmac) on roads which see little traffic.

104 Sam Wadsworth 1:13:39

Another good performance from Smirf to take 3rd place.

3 David Mirfield 45:33 (2nd M40)
19 Andy Berry 52:20 (2nd M45)
46 Andrew Smith 58:39 (3rd M60)

144 Stephen Jackson 28:36

314 Sharon Newbold 33:07

It was almost perfect conditions for this race and right from the start the first six runners made a scorching start up to the first res, led by Wharfedale's Matthew Athersmith  The group included David Mirifield who was in 2nd place and Ben Whitehead who stuck with them despite running in the cross country the day before.  In his second race since making his comeback, Andy Collins decided to let them go and not try to keep up with them, but still looked like the climb had taken a lot of him when he reached the res..  As the race progressed, Matthew Athersmith continued to set a fast pace and the following runners, led by David Mirfield began to drop off him. This was the position at Ponden.  At this point, Andy Collins seemed to have found his second wind and was running well.

The race continued in this way with Matthew Athersmith gradually stretching out his lead,and on the approach to Haworth, Smirf was still in second place.  However, on the run in, he was pipped by Matthew's brother Lee and got pushed down into third.  It was however, brilliant racing between all three contenders.  Ben Whitehead was still going well in 6th place and was followed by Andy Collins who looked set to take a comfortable 7th place.  However on the run in, he was challenged by Calder Valley runner Andy Ford and he had to give his all in an exciting dash to the finish to maintain his place. 

The ladies race was won by local girl Helen Smith, now running for Salford.  The Barlickers were led home by Emma Law, with everyone then following in quick succession to leave Barlick with 3 top ten finishers.  It was nice to see Cloey Mason & Anne-Marie Beech out in their first race for quite some time.

3 David Mirfield 56:39 (2nd M40)
6 Ben Whitehead 59:39
7 Andy Collins 62:53 (2nd Senior)
14 Robert Cranham 69:22
16 Andy Berry 69:33
24 Andrew Smith 72:08 (2nd M60)
35 John Mason 75:09
54 John Boothman 80:25
67 Pete Jackson 85:17
103 Carl Pawson 101:31

Ladies Race
7 Emma Taylor 77:23
8 Emma Law 78:17
9 Jacqueline Collins 79:02
11 Hayley Whitehead 79:22
13 Paula Cullen 83:10
19 Lucy Brown 87:22
38 Cloey Mason 106:45
39 Anne-Marie Beech 107:41