A Date With the Mighty Deerstalker

Rob Howard / 27.11.2008

There are many ‘adventure runs’ in the calendar now - but none with the style and daring adventure of The Mighty Deerstalker. 2009 will be only the 3rd edition, but already it’s a legendary event and is sure to fill up again so taking up the early-bird entry currently on offer is a good move if you want to be there on March 21st.

You should know what you’ve let yourself in for before you do however. The Runner’s World forum had a few traumatised road-runners complaining after last year’s race ... they’d entered a 10k and been out in the dark, up mountainous scree slopes, though freezing pools and dark forests. Poor things.

To give you an idea winning time for the 10k race, which goes from dusk through into the night, was 1.24.39 – and that was a world-class mountain runner. The slowest was over 4 hours and by that time the race party (Beerstalker) was well underway.

The ‘fancy dress code’ for this race is ‘Do it in Tweed’, and takes its theme from the superb location at Traquair House beside the Tweed river, on the outskirts of Innerleithen. Last year’s photo gallery shows some of the bizarre and creative costumes and the key locations on the race. Dressing up is not compulsory, but it’s all part of the fun!

If you don’t want to go for the full 10k run there is a daylight 5k option too, and the event village has free camping and entertainment on the day and music into the night. Traquair House even has its own brewery so there will be no shortage of beer.

To find out more, see last year\'s photos and take advantage of the early-bird prices check out the event website.