News & Blog

Spooked by Success of Winton’s First Halloween 5K Obstacle Course Race

7th November 2018

Winton’s first ever night time Halloween 5K Obstacle Course Race has just taken place. This article is based on feedback from Scott Smith, the owner of Scottish Assault Courses (SAC) Edinburgh, which has its obstacle course on Winton Estate in East Lothian.

Why did you choose Winton Castle for your inaugural Halloween 5K Obstacle Course?

Scottish Assault Courses now has a permanent, purpose-built, one-mile assault course on Winton Estate as part of the Winton Activities Zone. We used this obstacle course for part of the route as well as creating some special Halloween obstacles.

“We wanted to provide a fun but challenging obstacle course for families, as well as one that would appeal to more experienced runners. Challenges included a muddy crawl net followed by a ‘car wash’ where runners squeezed through tyres and over rollers!

Running in the dark, many of the runners wore halloween-inspired costumes as they ran past flood-lights, disco lights and even fire pits.  Around 100 runners took part. There were families with kids age 8 upwards, as well as more experienced runners from running clubs and obstacle course race (OCR) groups, with lots of participants from Edinburgh and East Lothian, as well as from all over central Scotland.

The music and DJ were provided by Lasertech Disco and Karaoke, and runners could enjoy food at a BBQ laid on by Winton.

Did your first ever Halloween 5K meet your expectations?

Scott Smith from SAC Edinburgh continues: “We got some great feedback from the runners on both the route and obstacles. They loved the course with its steep hills and lots of obstacles. The water tunnel was a favourite.

The number of people who came to our first Halloween 5K was fantastic and it was a great sight to see all those head torches moving in the distance.

The terrain on Winton Estate is excellent and vast, with a varied route through woods, across fields and over water crossings. All finishers were rewarded with a skeleton medal! I feel the event went very well.”

Paul Nixon from Winton Castle concludes: “Our Halloween Run was a huge success, especially as it was our first ever night time run. We’ll be hosting it again next year and expect many more runners will take part. There will be new obstacles, and runners will have to jump over a real fire trench near the finishing line!”

Winton’s one-mile obstacle course is available for private parties, running and OCR clubs, stag do’s and corporate groups. See Activities and Outdoor Challenges on the Winton Castle website.

We’re very grateful to Bulloch.Photography for the photos.