I was a bit nervous about this race, as it's famous for people getting lost on the course. It's happened several times in recent years, so I was keen not to fall into the same trap. Thankfully, there was another local runner, Rick, who knows the course a bit and is a similar pace to me.
The race leader, Lloyd Taggart is a lot faster than the rest of us, so we couldn't really follow him. So it was left to Rick to lead the rest of the field. When Rick was ahead of me, he led us well, and when I was ahead, Rick was like a sat nav; shouting things like, "head for the tree. That's where the stile is," and similar helpful tips. This was very kind of Rick. He could have shouted, "turn left and keep going until you reach Whaley Bridge".
Towards the end of the race, I managed to outpace Rick on a flat section to finish second. I was very pleased with this. It was also a good race for Mrs Noel, who finished first in the ladies race. This was a welcome return to form after coming 6th at the Hope Wakes race in midweek.
On to the prizes. Normally, fell race prizes are handed out in an attempt to handicap faster runners and hence even things up a bit. Winners normally get alcohol, chocolate or cakes. However, today, I was given a book on how to run faster. Maybe they picked it specially after realising that I was over 2 minutes behind the race winner, and he would have been further ahead but he had won a race the night before!
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