Trail running comes with its fair share of unexpected twists—uneven terrain, surprise hills, the occasional rogue tree root out to claim an ankle. But runners at the Acorn Trails 10K in Glasgow last weekend got a curveball no one saw coming: an actual saboteur.
That’s right. A prankster, who apparently had nothing better to do on a Sunday, decided to play race director for the day.
This mysterious mischief-maker didn’t just move a course sign—they buried one under leaves and twigs and then posed as a race marshal to send around 30 runners on a completely different route.
The result? A detour adding an extra 2.5 km (1.5 miles) to their race.
The race, which wound through the scenic (and now slightly infamous) Castlemilk Woodland, had a solid 115 runners ready to take on the course.
Everything was going as planned until some competitors started approaching the finish line—from the wrong direction. Confused but determined, the runners plowed ahead, having no idea they’d been punked.
Michelle Sinsheimer, co-owner of Acorn Trails, recounted the moment when they realized something was off: “Some people came across the line and they were saying they were following arrows but they went the wrong way.”
“We’ve had lots of different stories from the runners who were affected. But they all said they were told where to run.”
“The sad part for us is that the sign was buried, whoever did this made a point of doing it. It clearly wasn’t an impulsive move”.
Turns out, a real marshal went to check the course and found a directional sign literally buried under a pile of leaves. Whoever was behind this wasn’t just being cheeky—this was premeditated racecourse manipulation.
The reality is that this prank could have had serious consequences. The detour took runners away from marshaled areas and medical support. If someone had twisted an ankle or hit the dreaded wall far from help, the joke wouldn’t have been so funny.
“We can laugh about it now, especially as everyone was so good about it. It wasn’t an easy course, there were a lot of dips and hills, so the people who managed an extra couple of kilometres were quite impressive,” Sinsheimer said. “It could have been the longest run ever for some folk.”
“We had 22 marshals out on the course, it is something we are always aware of, but we will obviously have to look at that.”
This isn’t even the first time Acorn Trails has been targeted. A similar incident happened at a race in Queen’s Park earlier this year, but organizers caught it before the runners were sent on an unplanned adventure.
Messing with a race might seem like a relatively harmless prank, but historically, racecourse sabotage in all sports has been a real issue.
Back in the 1904 Tour de France, spectators went full villain-mode, throwing nails and glass on the course to derail competitors. More recently, in 2024, someone deliberately poisoned the horse race track at the Gold Coast Turf Club, forcing a major race to be postponed.
Thankfully, the Glasgow prank didn’t go that far, but it raises an important question: why do people feel the need to interfere with races? Boredom? A grudge against cardio? A very specific vendetta against fluorescent race arrows?
To make amends, Acorn Trails is offering affected runners a discount on their next race. And while the prank may have added a little extra distance, at least everyone got more value for their entry fee—right?
