The Cracken Edge Fell Race is one a of a number of races falling under the Hayfield Fell Series. It's organised and supervised by the Kinder Mountain Rescue Service with all proceeds from the event going to support their cause.

Fell races appear to be a lot less 'formal' than road races if, like me, you're more used to the latter. Registration was on the night, filling in your details and being issued with a number. All done efficiently.

The briefing was very clear, as was the route marking and marshaling. Although listed as a 7 mile race, on the GPS it came out at about 6.4 miles.

The start was quite crowded but quickly thinned out as the route worked it's way up the first hill (for those unfamiliar with fell events, the concept of 'level ground' is entirely alien to fell races!). The only bottle-neck was at about the first mile where the runners all formed an orderly queue to get over the stile.

The thing is, this sort of event is never going to be a PB chaser. Having gone uphill entirely to this point, I was quite happy to wait and catch my breath.

The uphills were brutal but there was a fair amount of downhill running too. The fast downhills are high-octane stuff and not for the faint hearted - very good fun though :-D

The course was very wet and had sections of deep mud. Initially I had to fight the road-running urge to 'dodge puddles'. However by the time you're above your ankles in mud, that urge goes away. It's all part of the fun.

The final field of unlevel ground, followed by bog, followed by a fast downhill was a lot of fun. At the end was a drinks station

Great value for £5. If you've never tried a fell race, get over to your favourite sports shoe retailer, get some trail shoes and have a go at one.