Mighty Deerstalker 2019

Saturday was scene of the 2019 Mighty Deerstalker with a few Moorfoots in action. The race is now in its thirteenth year, although it was cancelled last year after falling foul to the Beast from the East. The 2019 edition was pretty challenging weather with race day starting with a big dump of snow swiftly followed by lots of rain and a hard thaw resulting in very soggy conditions and swollen rivers - so swollen that the three river crossings we taken out of the course as it simply wasn't safe.

The course was therefore about half a mile shorter at 8.8 miles but with the same amount of climb. First Moorfoot was Simon Hammond covering the course in 1:25:28 and finishing in 6th in wave 1 (there are 8 waves in total), next home was Dave Gaffney in 1:28:19 pipping another local Dean Whiteford on the line to 'win' the unofficial title of 1st Innerleither finishing about 10th in wave 1. Colin Williams was next home in 1:32:54, however the club's stand out performer was Amy Alcorn in at least 4th place in the woman's category if not higher. Also it was great to see ex Moorfoot and Edinburgh Uni student Sophie Collins accompanying her dad Peter Collins around the course. Sophie has been injured for almost a year so good to see her back in action. And it was Sophie's boyfriend James Dunn who runs for HBT who was a clear winner in the amazing time of 1:12:35, almost 5 mins clear of second!

There is a big caveat with the results which can be seen here: http://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=40&RId=5280&EId=2 with the organisers issuing the following statement meaning that it is quite likely that a number of the high finishers in the results did the half course, rather than the full course as shown:

Please note: Due to the particularly challenging weather that Storm Gareth threw at The Mighty Deerstalker & the rivers rising by over a metre during the event, we had to re-route a number of runners to ensure you completed the course safely. This is our number one priority, but meant that we had to avoid the area & timing mat where the normal Half/Full stalker would meet. This means if you chose to swap categories on the day & run the Half instead of the Full or vice versa, your results will still show under the category you originally booked under.