Beast of Ballyhoura
The Night Caravan to The Start
Rob Howard / 01.08.2014
For those teams who managed to get some sleep before the race their reveille came from the owner of Blackwater Castle, Patrick Nordstrom, who broke the night’s silence with a tune on his trumpet. It was a musical awakening at 11.30pm.
By midnight all of the teams had made their way down the dark castle drive, small clusters of headlamps under the trees, to reach the two coaches which would take them to the start – wherever that might be. Some with local knowledge had figured this out by now, but many were still in the dark, setting off into the unknown.
It was a 2 hour night drive for the coaches and their sleepy passengers, and a caravan of race vehicles followed the coaches as their guides to the start location. The convoy passed pubs and clubs turning out and busy fast food take-outs, where normal Friday night life continued. They made their way to the villages of Ballina and Killaloe at the southern tip of Lough Derg, where they pulled into a layby near the Limerick University Activity Centre. It was time to wake up and race.
All the teams had now been issued their trackers, but they still had no maps and these were quickly issued as the team numbers were called out. Some very twitchy navigators soon had their headtorch beams focused on the map detail, trying to quickly figure out exactly where they were and get to grips with the first stage.
They didn’t have long. After a quick walk down the road to a side track signed as the South Clare Way, they were set off at 02.20 and the 2014 Beast of Ballyhoura had begun!
This first section is on foot and the minimum distance to the mandatory controls is around 13km, but there is an early climb as the teams make their way up to the summit of Moylussa at 532m. There are 5 mandatory controls on the opening run/trek, and also 8 bonus checkpoints, some up on the hills and others in forest lower down. Teams have both a section of 1;50,000 map and a detailed orienteering map to find them, if they chose to.
That is a tricky decision as they don’t know the rest of the course. It backs the elite teams who hope to win into something of a corner. It would be a big risk not to collect them all. For teams who aim simply to finish the course the decision is just as difficult – should they try to gain some extra bonuses early on, or aim to move around the course more quickly to keep their options open for later. Ivan Park says some of the bonus controls are very technical and they could be hard to find.
Later in the night teams will return to the start point and take to the water for a 300m swim along the shore line to the activity centre. Only 3 team members must swim with the 4th taking team gear along the shore to the swim finish. This at least gives any weak swimmers an opt out.
At the briefing teams agreed not to bring wetsuits to this swim, taking Park’s assurances that the water was; ‘almost bath water warm’. When they return from their run hot and sweaty in the very early hours of the morning they may perhaps not agree. After the swim they take their kayaks out onto Lough Derg for the first paddling stage to reach TA1.
SleepMonsters
