Hundreds get muddy at biggest ever Beast Race at Loch Ness

SCOTLAND'S most brutal obstacle course race, the Prime Four Beast Race, saw hundreds of participants get down, dirty, wet and muddy at Loch Ness at the weekend, raising over £128,000 for charity.

A competitors takes part in the Prime Four Beast Race at Loch Ness. Picture: Contributed

Nearly 1,800 participants took to the stunning course at Aldourie Castle by Loch Ness and faced an epic challenge, with obstacles taking advantage of the site’s awesome natural features.

That number marks a 40% increase on the 2016 event.

Getting muddy in the Prime Four Beast Race at Loch Ness. Picture: Contributed

Now in its fifth year, Prime Four Beast Race at Loch Ness was bigger and bolder than ever before with a savage new 10km long route across the Aldourie Castle Estate.

The new-look course also included more merciless obstacles for participants to overcome such as the icy cold Looney Dook and the perilous Black Hole.

Prime Four Beast Race’s official charity partner is Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, for which over £128,000 has been raised so far by Beast Race participants. That number will significantly rise after all funds are totalled for this year’s race.

Prime Four, an international business based on the outskirts of Aberdeen, is the event’s title sponsor. Developed by Drum Property Group, Prime Four is home to 12 major energy and service companies, with that number due to expand.

Getting muddy in the Prime Four Beast Race at Loch Ness. Picture: Contributed

As part of Prime Four’s sponsorship, colleagues at any of the companies who are located at the Kingswells site, have benefitted from a range of free activities including 3,000 hours of training across 600 classes including Boot Camp, Circuits, Yoga, Metafit, a JogScotland Running Group, and the Prime Four Bleep Test.

This all fits within Prime Four’s principle objective which is to, “bring life to work.”

Jono Buckland, director at organisers FireTrail Events, said: “Good grief, that was brutal. Our participants told us they wanted it to be tougher than ever before, so we ramped it up, and challenged them to try and break the beast.

“Of course in the face of a course of this magnitude our Prime Four Beast Race participants rose to the challenge, with endurance, a sense of community and no shortage of humour.

“It was indeed a spectacular, muddy, fun-filled party. There’s a few thousand people that might need a rest today, though.

Fife Hyland, communications director at Drum Property Group, developers of Prime Four, added: “What a Prime Four Beast Race that was at Loch Ness. With a significant rise in numbers it was brilliant to see so many new participants, facing up to what was – by some distance – the most brutal beast yet.

“Prime Four is really proud to support this event, and now we can’t wait for the second race at Banchory in two weeks.”

The second, and final, Prime Four Beast Race of the series takes place in Banchory outside Aberdeen on 23 September.