The Beast Trail 2018

Taiwan Beast Runners delivered another fantastic trail running event this time with the fourth edition of The Beast Trail. This year’s event had the 50km Formosan Wild Boar for those more experienced runners who like to run for hours and hours, the 25km Formosan Barking Deer, for those who wanted to push the speed a bit more, the 12 km Formosan Rock Macaque for people new to trail running and the 4 km Formosan Flying Squirrel for the new generation of runners.

The weather conditions could not have been better this year and the 50km runners started at 3:30am under a bright moon and a sky full of stars.

In the picture below you can see some of the runners going down one of the first mountains in the course. It was not going to be the only mountain they would have to climb that day. The 50km course offered around 4100m of positive elevation.

Just after 5:30am the sun was rising and the runners continued climbing even more mountains. Petr did an amazing job with the course marking. Nobody likes to get lost during a race especially if it is dark.

Taiwan trails are most of the time not as “runnable” as the trails in other countries. Here the trails are steep and most of the time the runners have to use ropes, chains, or just whatever is available to keep climbing and running.

Safety is always important and what is the point in pushing to save a minute if you can injure yourself or others and then lose the whole race? That is why it is so important to know our limitations within running.

It is also important to train your whole body and not just your legs when you want to run in one of the Beast Runners events.

When everything goes quiet the runners can just enjoy the view and the course whilst being mindful of their surroundings.

After a couple of hours the sun is fully present and runners know it. Carrying plenty of water is always a good idea in these sort of competitions.

I took a detour and decided to follow the 25km course instead of continue following the 50km runners.

Aid stations for The Beast Runners events are always a good place to get some more energy! The stations always have food even for vegans, volunteers ready to assist you, medical help and the Runivore guys cheering you on and more. However, the aid stations are the place where you can meditate for what is coming! Petr always has some more climbs waiting for you.

After leaving the mountains runners had to run for a couple of kilometres on the roads, but even here Petr managed to include some incredible scenery and Taiwanese culture.

After some road running the runners went back to the trails and enjoyed the last couple of kilometres before getting to the finish line where cold drinks, friends, and a cool river were waiting for everyone.