The Mighty Deerstalker 2009

I thought I'd write a quick report on the Mighty Deerstalker race which, although not a hill race, involves lots of mud, hills and general mayhem and I thought it might appeal to some of the Westies. I had a bit of spare time and offered to marshall at the 5k race which mainly involved shouting encouragement to people who couldn't decide whether to run straight through the waist-deep swamp or around it. The course was pretty tough so people were still coming through 1.5-2hr into it. Usually with mud up to their chests, big smiles and in some cases some very bizarre outfits (batman, tutus, wigs, antlers and mustaches all featured).

The Deerstalker this year attracted around 1500 people. Who'd have thought there's so many crazy psychos in the world?

The '10km' race started at 5.30pm on what was one of the most glorious evenings of the year so far. A mad sprint over some haystacks was followed by a dip in a smelly bog then a brutal 'run' uphill, next to the Innerleithen bike trails. On reaching the top we had some balance beams to walk along, lots of downhill running on the trails (bermy, sweepy, fun and steep), a disco in the woods (flashing lights and rave music) and then wading through a river for 10 min. Then it was another calf-burning climb on scree to the top of a second hill with some awesome running downhill on the grass and finally running back into Traquair house gardens in the pitch black. Not sure why I didn't realise I had my head torch on upside down - just kept asking myself why they'd design something that only lights up the sky rather than the path in front. Hmmm. Had to crawl under a cargo net (not easy with a backpack on) and came in on 2hr6. The longest (and most fun) 10km I've ever done!

Didn't manage to stay awake for much of the party but I'm told it was good. I'll look forward to it next year. Didn't see any other Westies there but they could have been hiding behind tweed and strange facial hair so I don't know for certain!

Posted by Elizabeth Adams on Thu 26 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

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