The Beast is Stirring

So with #Endure24 behind us now, the full focus is on The Beast of Ballyhoura for the coming weeks.

Information is being 'leaked' about the course and the sense of tension is palpable as the team learn more about the challenge each day.

At the start of July we received the following information:

2014 Beast Route Minimum Distances For Each Section.

• Start Short Foot Orienteering 1km
• Section 1.1 Kayak 20km
• Section 1.2 Swim 600m
• Section 1.3 Foot Orienteering 11km
• Section 1.4 Kayak 13km
• TA1 Kit/Bike Boxes
• Section 2.1 Mountain Bike 50km
• Section 2.2 Water Based Task 3.5km
• Section 2.3 Mountain Bike 38km
• Section 2.4 Foot Based Task 1km-5km
• Section 2.5 Mountain Bike 28km
• TA2 Kit Boxes
• Section 3.1 Kayak 20km
• Section 3.2 Foot Orienteering 25km
• TA3 Kit Boxes
• Section 4.1 Mountain Bike 27km
• Section 4.2 Foot Orienteering 5km
• Section 4.3 Mountain Bike 20km
• Finish

And then we learn a little more about each discipline:

Race Disciplines

• Mountain biking – teams should be prepared for a range of riding including single track, steep hills, gravel roads and sealed roads.


• Trekking – will involve travelling by foot through rugged and diverse terrain. The Irish hills can be wet and boggy in places. 


• Kayaking – kayaks will be provided by race organizers. Kayaking may be on inland rivers or lakes. Generally kayaking will be permitted during both day and night. Some of the rivers may have weirs. Teams will be advised in advance about any obstacles. There will be a dark zone in operation for the kayak stage


• Swimming - teams will be required to cross rivers. there will also be a swim section (minimum of 2 members per team must swim) 2 * 300 meters, PFD’s will be available if you feel you need one.


• Rope work. Could include abseiling, traversing, ascending etc.


• Orienteering – orienteering is an extremely important part of the race. The course is not marked and teams are required to navigate using maps.


• Special - as always you should expect some surprises, and special tasks

The night kayak could be interesting though the total (minimum) 53k of kayaking is going to be a hell of an upper body workout!

Currently looking at some training day options to see if we can all day hire kayaks and throw in a little bit of orienteering / mountain trekking to clean up rusty map skills. Ropework, swimming and trekking is fine. Mountain biking, well you know my history there, but a planned 163k (minimum!) could feel like 300k if there is loads of climbing.

Plenty of planning to arrange the kit and ensure each zone is properly fuelled and equiped. At least we will have access to the transition zone or team kit boxes 3 times so the travelling load can be broken up a bit.

Not called The Beast for nothing!!