Anyone who thinks that a pub run is "just another training session", should think again.  It is a bit of light training and lots of social banter.  Read all about the night's run as recounted by Stephen Chew.

Gargrave Pub Run by Stephen Chew.

Further good news from the weekend as Sarah Tipler earned her first county vest for being the second Lancashire lady in the English championship race at Barley. Sarah finished 11th overall,  but the race was also a Lancashire Championship race. The first Lancashire lady was Lindsey Brindle of Horwich and third was Helen Leigh of Blackburn Harriers, who completed the podium places.  Sarah has been training exceptionally hard and this is great reward for the work she has put in.  Not only that, but she only started running less than two years ago, so there could still be a lot more to come from Sarah.  The inter counties race will take place on 18th May at Witton Park, Blackburn.  Well done Sarah - you have done yourself and the club proud.

Ian Livesey was going well in the marathon and was in 3rd place  with only 4 miles to go, but then he blew up and ended up dropping a couple of places to finish 5th. Abi Park was competing in her first half marathon and she did well in very windy conditions to complete it.

Full Marathon

5 Ian Livesey 2:53:07

Half Marathon

328 Gary Parkinson 1:55:24
942 Abi Park 2:53:55

This year, this was a championship race and attracted a talented field.  As a result, the ladies and the men ran separately.  The ladies were first to go and Victoria Wilkinson led the field up to the summit, determined to retain the trophy which she had just returned.  She descended as if the world was on her tail, but in fact, by this time time she had built up a good lead and she ran out an easy winner.

Further down the field, our own Sarah Tipler was having a great run and was in 10th place on the ascent to the summit.  Unfortunately, on the tops, she lost a place, but still finished in 11th place against the top runners in the fell running world.  Quite an amazing result.  Rachel Lowther looked to be going comfortably on the ascent and descended like  a true fell runner to beat her previous time on a course which had been altered to make the finish much more difficult and challenging.

The men's race was like a war.  The field was tightly packed on the ascent, but by the time they returned, three runners, Tom Addison, Rob Hope and Simon Bailey were in a race of their own.  They were neck and neck and no quarter was been given by anyone.  It was all exciting stuff to watch.  In the end, Tom Addison ran out the winner, but it was a great race between all three.

Of the Barlickers, Nick Treitl had a good run to finish in 44th position with Rob Weir the second Barlicker.  The times and places for everyone was:

Ladies Race

1 Victoria Wilkinson 38:54
11 Sarah Tipler 42:49
86 Rachel Lowther 53:26

Men's Race

1 Tom Addison 32:55
44 Nick Treitl 37:37
116 Rob Weir 41:41
253 Pete Jackson 49:55
264 Dave Halliday 50:39
270 Glenn Whittaker 50:57
325 Richard Treitl 59:00

The full results are in the results section

4 Des Walkden 19:59 New PB
7 James Fent 20:35 New PB

Andy Berry took his group out on the 5K measured section of the canal, but they ran it in the reverse order, that is Barnoldswick to Foulridge.  As a result, what is an easy downhill start becomes a hard uphill finish and so the times are not strictly comparable with those that were recorded last year.  The group did well and it would be interesting if, in a few weeks, the same group ran this course in the opposite direction.

Times

Although these times are not strictly comparable, they have been added to the record of timed training runs which is accessible from the Training Page.