MacTuff 2019

By Stewart Ireland

It’s funny how goals change over time. My goal for this race when I signed up with an early bird discount was to match my result of last year. Qualifying for the European obstacle course race championships, and hopefully this year compete in them. That was in March 2018. Ten months away from the foggy, chilly starting line at Knockhill race course. In that time I thought I’ll get faster, stronger and be very competitive on race day. I got faster, my first and only sub 40 10k came one month after signing up. I got stronger, lifting PB’s in the gym for deadlifts and back squats in 2018. Then came the Great Glasgow 10k run at the end of September. A race which I had to hobble away from due to pain in my left foot, which later would diagnosed as plantar fasciitis and kept out of running for 3 months. From the end of September to January 6th. Race day.

My goal when I arrived at Knockhill had gone from finishing within the top 10 for my age to qualify for Europe to just finishing, hopefully pain free. I hadn’t been able to train for the long running sections I knew where coming, I was confident in my strength. However I was also aware that this also meant I was a little heavier than last year. Worth noting when there is also climbing and hanging obstacles to overcome. Needless to say when the organisers started hyping up the competitors, as pipers came down through the queuing racers and the fireworks boomed the start I was feeling a bit apprehensive. The race started with a lap of the race circuit itself, not as you may think on the tarmac but around the outside, on the grass and gravel run offs. At the end of this mile and a half my legs were already protesting but I had managed to stay in sight of the race leaders, a small victory, fog on the day meant that you could only see about 100m in any direction. A tyre carry through a cold steam followed. It was here that I began to really notice a lack of speed as I was overtaken by fit bastards as they jogged past as I ploughed on, hoping to make up time later. Carrying that tyre around the 4x4 track several times, going through that stream several more times I finally finished the carry section. I was able to reclaim a few spots during the next series of obstacles, a mixture of climbing and moving heavy objects around. Culminating in dragging a race car up a steep slope. It wasn’t actually that steep but when you’re pulling a car behind you feels like a mountain.

After another small climb the next large section of running began. This was one and a half miles of hill repeats on wet grass and slippery stones. I gained a few more places here, until we had to crawl up one of the sloped under a cargo net. It was here that I my left hamstring cramped up, forcing a stop and a stretch. That was the beginning of the end of my long jogs between obstacles. After this point it became more of a sprint/jog/walk as I tried to manage the desire to finish well with the now constant threat of my leg cramping up again. The next portion of the course really didn’t help me at all as we had to wade our way through waist high mud. I don’t think there is any way of describing the way that sort mud clings to you as you try to move your leg out and the amount of energy it drains from you as you move forward through it.

A few mud crawls and wades later, down a water slide that did nothing to clean you and only took more warmth out of your muscles and we arrived at a few obstacles that were causing a lot of people problems. I believe in situations where you think you might struggle with something or its visually intimidating the best thing to do is just to jump in. The more you think about it the more you’ll physc yourself out and the less likely you’ll be to do it. That’s what was happening here, to people who were doing the shorter route for a challenge. We had come up to wall that we had to climb on top of and them jump onto the next well, passing over or under a protruding metal bar to

get there. After this the final long running section of the course came upon us. It was just under a mile of running through a fire break in the nearby forest. With all the uneven ground that comes with that sort of running. By this point both my legs were threatening to cramp on me and my running spells were getting shorter and shorter as a result. The mud, cold and lack of any real running training were really beginning to tell on me. A few more places lost as the final big three obstacles began.

The first of these is what the organisers dubbed “dead leg ditches”. You jump down into a ditch and pull yourself out the other side. Repeatedly, over and over again. I lost count. I can testify that it lives up to its name. The next was three dunks underwater. The first you think, not too bad. The second dunk you think, that’s cold! The final dunk you don’t think you just get brain freeze. The final of the big three obstacles was the quarry jump. Where you launch yourself off an elevated platform into the cold waters of a quarry. It wasn’t as bad as last year but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t cold or strength sapping. It just means there was no ice on the surface like last year.

After the final big three my legs were rubber if I am honest I don’t really remember much apart from following the path and not seeing anyone around me, the fog was still really dense. I do remember the finishing line though. After the final wall climb, which I got over with the grace of a dancing elephant I reached the end. An awesome medal, warm soup and a thankfully dry change of clothes waited for me.

Despite the cold and mud everyone was smiling and in enthusiastic with the experience and themselves. The spectators full of awe for their friends and strangers for doing something this “crazy”. I placed in the top 33rd overall in the 15k course out of 613. Not quite good enough for European qualification but good enough for me. I also achieved my revised goal, I finished the course pain free. At least in my foot. I had developed bruises, cuts and cramp throughout the race but my foot didn’t feel any worse than when I started.

I will be back next year. Even if I have been injured beforehand, the event is amazing and the people who run it and organise it make it. MacTuff isn’t the flashyist of obstacle course or the most well-known. However comparing it to others out there it is the more challenging than most, certainly more relaxed than others I’ve done. That’s not to say it isn’t competitive, it really is but you get the sense that even the most competitive there are there for fun as well as to race. Not just race. By the end everyone had been challenged, from the fun runners to the more elite athletes. I don’t think there is any better way to endorse a race than say that. It caters for everyone and everyone came away muddy but very happy.