Today was Edale Fell race, which Andy Green had helped to get a record number of Steel City Striders to enter.

Andy was flying and was in-front of Andy Buck and myself for the first half of the ascent up Kinder, until he had a comical tumble. To be fair to Andy, though the weather was on the whole good, the drizzle will have affected his visibility through his glasses.

Andy was still going strong and having the race of his life until the top of the last summit at Grindslow Knoll, where he stumbled again and went over on his ankle and could feel a crack. He was lucky he was near a marshal and several striders stopped to assist him. When the news started to get through to the finish line, the Mountain Rescue were already on their way.

Myself and Andy Buck, after a quick change, walked up with more Mountain rescue team members right to the top, of Grinslow Knoll, just in time to see them start the retrieval process. Andy was in great spirits and the team did not seem overly worried at the extent of the injury, therefore no helicopter ride this time.

Stretchering off a 6ft 14st guy from 2000ft is not a straight forward process, where they sledge him off the steepest bit of the hill before putting a big wheel under the stretcher to aid the next mile or so of steep rocky decent was very impressive.

He was examined by one of their resident doctors who helped reassure us that there hopefully should not be anything more complicated than a broken ankle, but only the hospital will be able to confirm that.

Andy was obviously enjoying all the attention and the gas and air! He especially enjoyed when they had to lift him over a locked gate.

All in all a very professional performance from both Edale and Buxton Mountain rescue teams, for which all at Steel City Striders are very grateful, please feel free to show your appreciation by making a donation to the team. This is the first time we have needed them and they were there! Without donations they would not exist. 

Thanks in advance from all at Steel City Striders and the larger Fell Running community.

Phil