Andy Collins, Billy Haines and Stephen Shorrocks.set out on this challenging run around Snowden.    The sting is in the tail of this race, as after 17 miles, you have to ascend almost 3,000 ft before doing a similar descent to the finish.  Adam Fieldhouse led from early on and he never lost that lead.  By the first check point, Andy was in third place and going well.with Stephen a couple of places behind him.  Throughout the race the position of Stephen varied between 5th and 7th and he finally ran out in that position and finishing first MV40.

After briefly dropping to 4the position, Andy settled into 3rd position and baring a mishap, that looked like it would be his finishing position.  However, on the final leg, Simon Jones, who had been steadily rising through the field, swept passed the 2nd and 3rd place runners to take 2nd place and pushing Andy down to 4th in the process.

Billy Haines adopted a different strategy from Andy and went off quite steady before moving up the field in the second half of the race to finish in 8th place.  .

Andy must be disappointed that he did not have a podium finish, but nevertheless, it was a good performance from all Barlickers to have three finishers in the top ten out of 251 starters.

1Adam Fieldhouse 4:13:59
4 Andy Collins 4:41:30
7 Stephen Shorrocks 4:47:32 First FV40
8 Billy Haines 4:54:01

 There was also a women's race and there were two Barlickers in the top twenty.  They finished as follows:

13 Helen Harrison 6:08:49
14 Katie Towers 6:10:59
35 Amanda Haines 7:00:14

What a good day out for the club in this tough 13.5 mile race.  Emma Jarvis had a faultless run.  By the time she passed the Shooter’s Arms at the top of the first climb, she had already built up a good lead.  However, she kept her concentration and kept up her pace to finish an easy winner with a lead of over 4 minutes over 2nd woman, April Thorpe. Further down the field, Jackie Collins looked to be struggling and she came home fourth.

In the men’s race, Tom Corrigan set off at a good pace and by the Shooter’s Arms, he had built up a good lead, he was looking comfortable and going well.  By the time he reached the reservoir and the Coldwell Activity Centre, his lead over chasing runner Aidan Holgate of Clayton had closed.  On the touch line, spectators were asking whether he had gone off too quickly.  By the time the leaders reach the last climb up Southfield Lane,  Aidan had taken the lead but he looked to be battling as he approached the top of the climb.  However he managed to keep going and led Tom home by just under 40 seconds.  These two had been in a battle of their own and finished well in front of the chasing pack.

However, the top ten was dominated by Barlickers.   Andy Collins had a sound run and was in 5th place ascending the final climb, but he dug deep and came home 4th.  He was followed  home by David Mirfield in 8th and Stephen Hall in 9th to make it four Barlickers in the top ten.

Further down the field Gary Thompson always looked to be going so easily, yet he had a great run to finish 1st V60 with a lead of 15 minutes over Dave Naughton of Cheshire Hill Runners.

The Barlickers finished as follows:

2 Thomas Corrigan 1:20:51
4 Andrew Collins 1:24:43
8 David Mirfield 1:26:03
9 Stephen Hall 1:27:53
18 Ben Whitehead 1:34:23
25 Andy Berry 1:37:46
26 Hannah Jarvis 1:38:16 Race Winner, 1st F35
31 Gary Thompson 1:42:18 1st V60
43 Jacqueline Collins 1:47:15
48 Andrew Smith    M55 1:48:41
49 Carl Pawson    M45 1:48:45
94 Anthony Brown 2:03:41

Full Results