The Outline of The Beast

Carrick Armer / 04.08.2017

With registration for The Beast beginning, we can actually talk about the course now!

The race starts in a local park at 5pm, with a short run to split the pack a little. Then from Letterkenny, the Beast heads north by bike, towards Milford to a short kayak stage on Lough Fern. North again, biking still, over Crochanaffrin, around the east of Knockalla mountain on the coastal road along Lough Swilly, up Murren and on to Fanad Lighthouse at the most northerly point of the route, then south-waswards to the first cutoff at Carrickart. That covers the first 90km or so of the route, and leads us to the first cutoff: any teams not here by 04:00 on Saturday (11hrs of race time) skip the next loop.

Those who do make it past head north up into Rosgoill, for a short trek loop to the beautifully named Murderhole Beach, and to a CP out on an intertidal island - there may well be some wet feet, though we're assured it's never much more than knee depth, as long as you stay on the sandbar. After that, back to the bikes ad south on the Wild Atlantic Way, past the 15th century Doe Castle, the two-century home of the MacSweeneys, and into Ards Forest Park for a foot orienteering loop. They may also be relieved to note that the coffee shop at the next TA will be open from 5am.

The next bike stage will be more gentle in gradient but maybe not in effort, as the racers use the dismantled Letterkenny-Burtonport railway, closed since 1947, to cover the next 20km to Iain Millar's Cottage. Iain is a local hero, climber and mountaineer with over 1000 first ascents of sea stacks, sea cliffs and rock faces in both Ireland and Scotland to his name, and will be manning the ropes section later in the race, but for now he's also letting the race use his property as a transition and the second cutoff. The next trek section circuits Lough Altan and Altan Farm with some steep, rough ground to traverse and a high mountain lough CP at Nabrackbaddy, but teams  who don't make it to the cottage by 1pm Saturday will skip this loop and continue on the old railway to Cashelnagor, to a station used in 'The Railway Station Man' (starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in 1992), and on by minor roads to the Dunlewey Centre. The route book is very firm here - racers must got to the foyer of the centre, NOT the gift shop. No souvenirs for you.

The next trek leg takes in the highest mountains of the race, looping under Sleive Snaght at 678m across the Derryveagh mountains to the aforementioned ropes section above another wonderfully named landmark, the Poisoned Glen. Allegedly a mistranslation due to the similarity between the Irish words for Heaven (Neamh) and for poison (neimhe), nevertheless, it's an evocative name for a feature, and the gully above which the racers will be abseiling will likely also seem somewhere between heaven and poison, we're sure. All racers will undertake the ropes, but those arriving here after 1am on Sunday fall foul of the third cutoff and head directly back down the Poisoned Glen to Dunlewey, while theose ahead continue their trek over the Derryveagh and up the steep scree and rock slopes of Errigal, the highest peak in Donegal and a very imposing pyramidal figure in its own right. Again, the routebook is firm here - "The north, west and south faces of Errigal are potentially very dangerous". Looking at the contour lines, the east side doesn't seem that much more friendly.

With those mountain treks out of the way, we're seemingly into the home straight, but 30km on bikes takes the racers to their next wet encounter, fron Gartan Bridge outdoors centre for a kayak around Gartan Lough and up the Bullaba river to a distant CP hanging under a bridge. Though the river is low on gradient and devoid of significant rapids, the recent volume of rain could make paddling upstream an arduous job, especially at this point in the race. Fortunately, this CP's an out-and-back, so all the work they put in on the way out gets paid back on the way home. That's how it works, right?

Once back at Gartan Outdoors, the end is definitely in sight. 17km away, but definitely in sight. Only one CP to gather, and then the final ride back to Letterkenny, to finish in front of the bar at the Radisson Blu hotel. This will either be a cruise or a sprint, depending on how close together they are!

So, in summary, that is The Beast of 2017. How will teams handle it? We'll have to wait and see. They're starting to register and picking up their maps now, so they'll just be getting their first glimpses of the route. Weather-wise, the forecast for the first night of the race is fairly good, though the sky is overcast it's fairly warm. Anything could happen, though.

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