Don Mann The Beast is Stirring Friday, May 21, 1999 — 9:00am (PST) (Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media) Interview with Don Mann, Beast founder

We competed in the Raid Gauloises as Team Odyssey three times, and it takes a whole year to do that race because — spending a year, trying to get sponsors together, training and taking three weeks off from work — and we started thinking that all we had to do was, if we could bring the price way down, we could have a race, not as big as the Raid or Eco-Challenge, but somewhat close to it, difficult anyways. We could make the price a lot cheaper. We tried to remove the obstacles that prevented people from doing such great races. So we figured we'd put on a nice race, get rid of the obstacles, have people pay a lot less, have them take a lot less time from work and still put on a very challenging event.

So, we decided we'd make it as low as we possibly could for price, and then what we'd do is have the same distances. We have about a 350 mile race, but instead of taking 10 days away to do it, you'd do it in five days.

Then we also wanted a non-stop race, because in the Raid and other races, Eco-Challenge, sometimes you'll be racing hard and then there's a dark zone, and the race directors ask you to stop and spend the night there. Then all the other teams that you just worked so hard in passing all catch up, and then the next morning everybody leaves at the same time, so the race starts over and over.

So, all the things that we saw that we didn't like in races, we tried to eliminate. We looked at those as obstacles and we tried removing these obstacles by putting on the Beast. And it's really a love for the sport. We've been working for a little under three years just for the passion. We haven't gotten paid, we haven't done a thing yet. We just do it because we love the sport, and we're trying to promote the sport. It grew into a hobby. It grew from a hobby to taking over all of our lives. Now we teach people on weekends, we have a training academy, we have a two-day race that prepares people for the Beast, we have a one-day race to prepare people for the two-day race. And now this is all we do.

But its because it's a passion. The environment — we love being outdoors, we love exercising outdoors, and love the teamwork, it's all a lot of fun. But it's a big challenge putting on a race. I feel it's a bigger challenge putting on the race than doing the race now.

What are the key things a team needs to do to finish the Beast?
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What they have to do — if they don't get lost, if they don't quit, and if they keep moving , even if it's a slow pace — they'll definitely finish the race. Now if they don't get lost, and don't get hurt, and don't quit and move faster than the other teams, they'll win the race. But really, anybody can finish this race if they didn't quit, didn't get lost and didn't get hurt.

What are the biggest challenges for the solo category?
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From a race director's point, we're worried that they'll be out there, if they hit their head on a rock or something, they're all by themselves without medical care. That's our worry. The biggest challenge for them — I've never done a race solo — but the biggest thing for a solo competitor is... when I'm in a race, if I have a problem with anything, I can ask one of my teammates, 'Hey, could you help me out with this? What do you think?' You can ask your teammates questions on navigation, and everything you're doing, your teammates help you out. And you help them out and everything.

But a soloist, he has nobody to bounce navigation off with, there's nobody to help fix his bike, he has nobody to help him paddle, he's going through the rapids all alone, he has nobody to talk to, his mind goes off and once he starts hallucinating and getting a little weary he's got nobody to bounce off his concerns or his questions with. It's a whole new thing.

Even as a Seal, we had three Seals that did it as a solo last year, and they all said the same thing. I've retired from the Seal team and I've never been out alone. You never do anything that hard all by yourself, ever, in adventure racing or in the military. We don't know of anything in an adventure sport or in anything where you're out there all alone.

And we wanted to put that into the sport so if somebody wanted to add another dimension, that extra dimension is there. And if they're training for a bigger race, if they're training for a race and they didn't have the whole team together, they could go ahead and try this solo.

But now we do it in all our smaller races too, our one-day and our two-day races and the Beast all of them all have a solo category, and it's proven to be a very popular concept. It's a whole new discipline.

— Don Mann, Beast of the East Founder

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