The Beast of Ballyhoura
Racing to the Finish at Blackwater Castle
Rob Howard / 04.08.2013
As the leading teams arrived at the new location for TA5 it was clear the 60km trek over the Galtee hills was going to take all of the teams a long time. Overnight there was lightning in the sky, but mercifully no more rain, though conditions on the hills were misty and foggy after a wet day, making the navigation harder and requiring careful compass work to get to all the checkpoints.
The first teams to complete the trek took around 12 hours. Leave No Trace were first to get in and Robbie Heffernan just said he was ‘burnt out’, while Conor O’Meara added, “it was just epic.” They were followed in by the Roe Valley team and Peter Cole said, “we took it steady and stayed on a bearing all the time, but it was very tough. This course has been a credit to the organisers, tough and interesting, with something of everything, and certainly much harder than other Beasts. They have upped their game for the European Series. Now, let’s get this thing done!”
They were soon followed by the Sandia team who had included two of the bonus checkpoints on their trek, a decision their navigator Eoin Keith regretted. “Navigation was fine,” he said, “but I’m not sure about our choices. I don’t think they were worth the effort and we may be pushed for time now.” This international team from Denmark, Ireland and the UK have (unofficially) done more checkpoints than other teams and were the race leaders, but they still knew they had to finish on time, making no mistakes along the way.
They lead a group of chasing teams on their bikes to the next mandatory CP, which was the Clay Pigeon Shooting at Lazy Dog Shooting range and had to wait a short while on arrival for their go. Each team member had 5 shots and if they got 18 or more hits they could move on around the course straight away. Any less and they had to choose a puzzle to answer before they could go ... and the more misses they made, the more puzzles they had to do.
Sally Ozanne of Skandia looked nervous and said, “I don’t like guns ... I prefer flowers and chocolates!” However those nerves fell away when she broke the clay with the first shot and she was jumping up and down with excitement. Most of the teams shot well and only had to complete one puzzle, and Skandia and closest rivals Outfront Events both chose a word search.
The shooting closed just after 3pm so not all teams had the chance to try it, but by then there was only 3 hours to the course closure so there was no time. In fact some of the slowest teams on the trek had to be picked up by the organisers later.
Now the race was drawing to a close and the final destination was the Ballyhoura Forest where the teams had yet more options of both cycling and running checkpoints, but by this stage only Skandia had the time or speed to do any, picking up two mountain bike checkpoints to increase their lead. All the other teams had to push straight on to the finish back at Blackwater Castle.
Here one final challenge awaited them as they were directed into the woods to a 60 foot climbing tower. Here 2 of the team had to make a strenuous climb, which a few fell off of or had to bail out from, and by this time the rain was pouring down once again. Once on top they were offered the chance to make ‘The Leap of Faith’ – by jumping off the top of the tower to try and grab a trapeze bar! They were safely roped of course, but it was still no easy thing to do, and some just couldn’t take the leap.
There was no penalty and the teams were off the race clock now, the climb and jump was just a fun challenge to finish the race off, and once completed they ran around to the castle and through the finish line to complete a memorable 2013 Beast of Ballyhoura.
[The results will be announced at the race dinner at the Spinning Wheel pub in Castletownroche tonight.]
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