It was brutal and unforgiving, but most of the 610 mud-splattered competitors who took part in the inaugural Beast adventure race at Knockburn Loch, near Banchory, declared they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
They ran up and down the Hill of Kerloch, waded through the chilled waters of Knockburn Loch and battled over testing stretches of heather and bog on a tortuous 10km route punctuated by 20 challenging man-made obstacles.
It was tough going, but the camaraderie which develops when there is shared suffering in sport was all too evident when the leading finishers, Newburgh’s Mark Walker and Stonehaven’s Ian Ramsey, chose to cross the line together to be crowned joint champions of the event, recording an impressive 53min 43sec. Billy Clark was next home in 54:53, followed by Chris Clark in 55:23.
Tammy Wilson, a member of the Garioch Road Runners club, took the women’s prize after finishing 10th overall in an excellent 57:56.
She said: “We had to run over some very rough terrain and you had to look out for loose rocks, boulders, sand and gravel.
“There weren’t too many obstacles in the first few kilometres but from the halfway point onwards it was just one after the other. We had to climb an A-frame tower at one point and I was too small for it so I had to wait for someone to help me get up.
“We were in the loch three times and the water was extremely cold. At another stage we had to crawl through a huge bog. The mud was so thick.”
Wilson, who earlier this year finished second in the north-east’s other major adventure race, the Ythan Challenge, is already looking forward to doing it all again.
She added: “I’d certainly go back next year. It was very well organised, there was a great atmosphere and most people seemed to enjoy it.”
Those comments were music to the ears of Jono Buckland, of organisers Firetrail events.
He said: “Everything seemed to go very well. There were lots of smiling faces at the end and the feedback we have had so far has been encouraging.
“We’d certainly plan to hold the race again in 2014 when hopefully we can make it bigger and better. We are very grateful to Bert McIntosh who allowed us to hold the race at Knockburn. The event’s charity is Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland and Bert revealed his wife had a heart attack just three weeks earlier, so it was particularly poignant for him.”
McIntosh, 69, who has been an active competitor in local events for many years, showed many younger participants a clean pair of heels when finishing 362nd in 1:32:39.