Dalbeattie's Hardrock Challenge will go ahead thanks to team work

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Organisers of Dalbeattie’s annual sporting showpiece, the Hardrock Challenge, have won their own race against the clock to ensure this year’s event can go ahead.Storms Arwen and Barra flattened huge sections of Dalbeattie Forest last December leaving the route choked with fallen trees.But thanks to a mammoth effort involving local foresters and Hardrock volunteers the timber has been cleared.Now it’s all systems go and hopes are high of a good turnout – despite the delay in getting the event to the starting blocks.Co-organiser Stuart Macintosh told the News: “It was like Vietnam after the storms – huge swathes of the forest were devastated.“Because of the storm damage it has been necessary to make a couple of diversions which have added about 0.3 miles to the main challenge route.“The junior route is unaffected.”Staged over the weekend of October 1-2, the run and mountain bike duathlon will see the Junior Hardrock Challenge take place on the Friday ahead of the senior event the following day.Competitors can sign up as usual via the SI Entries portal online with the closing date being September 25.The popular race – the run and the bike ride combined total 26.2 miles – is organised entirely by enthusiastic volunteers under Dalbeattie Community Initiative.The juniors compete over shorter distances set according to their age group.Traditionally hundreds of athletes of all ages take part in the Hardrock with spectators along the route adding to the atmosphere.Mr Macintosh is confident all the groundwork will pay off – but admits the pandemic is casting a long shadow,He said: “Numbers were down last year because of Covid.“And this year a lot of events elsewhere in Scotland are down too. “I think there’s still a certain amount