It is very easy to wander through the miles of footpaths in Dalkeith Country Park and see hardly anyone except near the main entrance and the park centre.  This weekend this little Ringlet butterfly might be surprised that its peaceful location will be disturbed by thousands of runners due to the Tough Mudder event which was postponed from last year.  For a couple of weeks I have watched the construction of huge structures and obstacles which participants have to climb, crawl or traverse with mud as one of the main hindrances.  There are 5 and 10 mile courses through the woods and fields with 37 obstacles and it is advertised as a course for “tough people to push your physical and mental limits – stepping outside your comfort zone is the reward.” Unfortunately as spectators are not allowed due to Covid restrictions I walked a large part of the course to see some of the obstacles and was very impressed by the precautions and safety measures with large bottles of hand sanitisers at each obstacle and everyone must have a negative test result in order to participate.  In my extra I have included some of the climbing obstacles such as the very high Mudderhorn, the icy Arctic Enema and the straw mountain.  The trenches will be filled with water which will make it very slippery trying to climb out and people have to climb through the tubes before getting tipped out into water.  The four hours of rain this evening will have made the course especially muddy but no doubt it will add to the fun and challenge.   For a more descriptive commentary on the sort of obstacles see these two blips which I did on a previous occasion.

Edit   Since writing this I have read that Midlothian Council revoked their licence with only twelve hours to go before the first race with no reason given.  Hundreds of people will be very disappointed especially after planning their travel and accommodation as well as all of the people who were involved in setting it up.  Probably the rapidly rising Covid numbers have influenced the decision but in that case it should have been cancelled several days ago

.......Update..   Level two restrictions limit outdoor activities to 500 which would have been ok as there would have been no more than 500 on site at one time, hence the reason why the licence was originally allowed.  However the Scottish Government said yesterday that it was limited to 500 a day.  There appears to have been some confusion over the interpretation but there have been several weeks during which it could have been clarified.   Given the rapid rise in Covid cases it is probab]y very wise to cancel despite the organisers safety measures, but disgraceful that it was left to the previous evening after all the work was done.