Before the race Sarah Burthe invited us all, runners and marshals to her house for some delicious veggie stew with homemade bread. We topped this off with a lovely chocolate cake that Yan had made. (I think I need this treatment before every race please ;-)) Then we headed off to Innerleithen to register and get moustached up. Michael was keen to get going so headed off to the start while we watched the wave 1 people go off.
Its been a few years since Gilly and I attempted this race. The last time we did it there was snow on the ground so this year it was much warmer. Not helped by the fact we were sporting tweed hats. The first obstacle is a pile of hay bales. Later there is rivers to wade through, balance beams to negotiate and ropes and cargo nets to contend with. By far the biggest obstacle confronting you is the two large hills that you climb, especially the second one which is covered in shale and so you find yourself crawling by the time you get near the top. It was on this hill that our harrier friends were to be found dishing out hugs and loud encouragement. Yan, Susie, Sarah, Allan and Mark were all stationed at various points on the hill and could be heard from some way off, particularly Yan (true to form :-)) So that was fantastic. The final obstacle is a water slide that was so much fun and very muddy. Once we were changed it was off to the ‘party tent’ for a well earned can of juice and to swap stories with our fellow runners. This was a super event, but we were very saddened to hear of the death of one participant and our hearts go out to her friends and family.
Out of 1597 runners we came:
Pos name time cat catpos gender genderpos wave
6 Stuart Sanderson 01:31:18 VET 50 1 Male 6 Wave 1 (first in his category!)
28 Michael Greens 01:42:28 STD 18 Male 28 Wave 2
77 James Bell 01:54:17 STD 46 Male 72 Wave 1
503 Gordon Campbell 02:33:43 STD 281 Male 429 Wave 5
572 Sadie Kemp 02:38:39 VET 40 21 Female 96 Wave 3
573 Gilly Marshall 02:38:39 VET 40 22 Female 97 Wave 3
Full results here: http://www.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=40&RId=7139&EId=2
Well done everyone, great efforts all round, competitors & marshals alike. Sounds like Sarhas pre-event (master chef quality) hospitality was a great success. It’s always shocking to hear of fatalities at events; every organisers nightmare.
Well done all you crazy Harriers enjoying the wet and muddy Mighty Deerstalker. Superb runs from Stuart Sanderson (1st O/50) and Michael Greens (18th Senior) and I noticed that both were on page 1 of 54 pages of results – FANTASTIC.