Edale Country Day

I've lost count of the number of times I've said 'this is one of my favourite fell races'. But, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Edale is short enough to be enjoyable and steep enough to be challenging. It also has a fun boulder hopping bit in the middle where you can pick your speed up.

I'm not one to drop names (apart from when I do), but occasionally I'm genuinely amazed by who I end up running next to. I was chatting to Simon Patton before the race. He was saying he's been doing loads of training for the Bob Graham round (72 miles, and 42 Lakes summits in 24 hours!) So consequently he has lots of stamina but no leg speed. And for a while I was ahead of him. Then after about 3 miles, he warmed up and left me in a cloud of dust.

Here's me looking like I'm jogging down the fields towards the end of the race. I thought I was going pretty quickly here, but the camera doesn't lie. It could explain why I lose places on descents.

I now have a new watch, so although the results aren't out yet, I can tell you that I beat last year's time and finished in about 38 minutes 33 seconds. Mrs Noel also did well and got a prize from the nice people at Accelerate, who sponsor this event and the others that make up the Gritstone Series.