How can a 5K- ish race (The organisers say the real length will never be revealed) take 3 hours plus for the slowest and approximately one hour for the winner ?
Welcome to The Deerstalker race which took place this Saturday 20th Mach from Traquair House, near the town of Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders.
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And we are off! |
This year, I had the pleasure of gaining entry and despite its tough man pedigree, I thought this would be a walk in the park after Barcelona Marathon - How wrong was I.
The organisers describe The Deerstalker as a turbo-charged roller coaster of a run. It's fun, it's fast, it's action-packed and it's as tough as you can bear. This is Fun Run meets Fell Race meets Hellrunner meets Tough Guy and they were right.
Your are named according to your age: 20-60 and you are a stag. Over 60 and you are an old Stag and below 20 your will have to be called a Bambi!
Many of those arriving heeded the race motto to 'Do it in tweed' and arrived in deerstalkers and tweed jackets. Among the highly technical race gear were also cloth caps, kilts, hunting horns and more exotic costumes, such as full Army kit and stag parties in pink dresses. There were many sets of antlers too, as befitted the race name.
The 5K race starts with a dash to leap over a wall of hay bales, soon followed by a waist-deep wade through a murky pool (translated water with cow shit - really smelly) the first of several dips in the water. We were warned that 1 in 10 would lose their shoe and the victims realised that was not a joke. Many had to run the race from here with one shoe or no shoes at all.
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Time to get wet! |
The race made full use of the surrounding natural features and the route climbed very steeply up prepared trails ( and I use 'prepared trails' very loosely) , taking in the zig- zags and various other obstacles.
For those unused to hill running, the forest descent was a hair-raising experience, especially as parts of it were off the trails. Anyone wondering just how steep a descent could be should take note: there is a reason for the nets to catch runners at the bottom of the hill.
After crossing the bridge over the swollen River Tweed there came a long wade through a flooded tunnel known as The Sump. Then it was back to Traquair House to finish.
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Through the Tunnel and still smiling |
It is the toughest race, I have ever done and I finished in 1 hour and 18 minutes and 58 seconds which believe it or not gave me a position 151st out of nearly 700 runners.
Despite being completely drained for energy, smelling of cow shit, completely wet to the skin - this is a race anybody should try! It was absolutely fantastic and I can't recommend it highly enough. The day was tough like hell, the race extremely well organised and the atmosphere was fantastically friendly.
After getting into warm clothes, it was time for a 'deerstalker' the name of the local brewed beer accompanied by haggis - a fantastic end to truly great day and race and I will definitely be back next year.
For more information visit : www.themightydeerstalker.com
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