Edale Excursion

After last year’s trip north, this year’s unofficial school reunion was held closer to the middle of the country. I therefore got the best deal because Edale’s less than two hours from my house. I met Nick L there and we completed a nice anticlockwise lap from the village over Ringing Roger and down Grindsbrook Knoll. Most of the route was marked with race flags, and it turned out that these were for the Kinder Barrel Race the following day.

James and Nick arrived soon after, and we did the usual chatting-until-way-too-late before I, booker of accommodation and chief organiser, somehow ended up being the only one sleeping on the floor instead of a bed.

I got quite the shock when I opened the curtains the following morning to find that we were under siege by the locals.

Somehow – I genuinely didn’t push the idea too much – it was collectively decided that I should run the fell race whilst everyone else did a bit of spectating. A normal race is moderately interesting if you’re not a fell runner, but the Barrel Race involves teams of eight carrying a 72-pint barrel around the route, with teams setting off a few minutes apart over the course of a few hours. Each team must design and build whatever contraption they desire to transport the barrel (no wheels though!). I did ‘The Pint’, which is for solo runners.

Anyway, I had a pretty good race, finishing 8th out of 30 runners. That performance was no doubt helped by everyone wandering up Grindsbrook to see me coming down from the Seven Minute Crossing descent. More importantly we spent the rest of the day watching teams in various states of shambles crossing the finish line, ate at the BBQ, went for a walk, hit the pub for tea, and nearly murdered each other playing board games.

I did squeeze in a quick sunrise run on Sunday morning, but the day was (understandably) mostly taken up by early starts for very long journeys. Massive thanks, as always, to everyone for another lovely weekend, and for making the effort to travel. Looks like the rotation takes us south next!