Are you up for the Full Monte in Mountcharles this September?

On Saturday, 7th September there will be a new addition to the adventure race calendar with the Monte Challenge taking place, based in Mountcharles and taking in the breathtaking views of the area including the top of Carnaween, one of the highest peaks in the Blue Stacks.

The origins of the event can be traced to local man Martin O’Boyle, who started taking part in the WAAR adventure race in the north west of the county in 2018 and he felt there was an opening and a route for a similar event in Mountcharles area.

“I felt we had the water, the routes and the hills. So what I did was I did the whole route myself without telling anybody, to see if it was doable,” said Martin O’Boyle, who will be the Race Director along with Peter Mogan.

“Then I was at the Keelogues Cycle, which Shaun Gallagher organises every year. Peter Mogan was there and we got talking and I told him about what I was planning. It just went from there.”

And to make sure there was a good broad local involvement, they  felt that three local organisations should benefit from the event in the first year. St Naul’s GAA Club, St Peter’s National School, Mountcharles and the Bluestack Special Needs Foundation were selected.

“It was a matter then of getting people involved. Rosy (Temple) is one of the best runners in these events in the country and we felt she was an ideal person to get involved. It just stemmed from there. We got a committee together with representatives from the three benefactors and a few others and we have been organising the event since last November,” said O’Boyle.

The full Monte Challenge committee includes Martin O’Boyle, Peter Mogan, Conor McBrearty, James McGroary, Siobhan McNulty, Rosy Temple, Daire Diver, Andrew Gallagher, Patrick McBrearty, Cathal Sweeney, Enda Lynch and Paul Gillespie.

The proceeds will be used to help the development of a second pitch at St Naul’s GAA ground; the opening and continued improvement of the Autism facility at St Peter’s National School and the running of summer camps for the Bluestack Foundation.

The committee is representative of the community and the focus now is on making the event one that will become unique and part of the annual adventure race calendar.

And to make the event more attractive to all levels of participants, the committee decided to offer three choices - The Full Monte, The Half Monte and The Little Monte.

The catchphrase they have used is: Are you up for the Full Monte? This is the toughest option and will cover a total of 56.7km, starting with a run around Mountcharles Pier; a hilly cycle to Letterbarrow FC grounds at Tymeen; a hike to the summit of Carnaween and back; a cycle back to Mountcharles via Meenaguise and the Grey Mare’s Tail before finishing with a beach run in Mountcharles.

The Half Monte, which covers 28.7km, starts with a run around Mountcharles Pier; a cycle loop around Letterbarrow and finishes with a 500m run.

The Full and Half Monte routes are open to over-18s and can be completed as an individual or as a team.

The Little Monte is the fun event which is a 5.2km walk/run.

Building one of the styles for the Carnaween part of the Monte Challenge - Peter Mogan, Conor McBrearty, Enda Lynch
Martin O'Boyle, Rosy Temple and Enda Lynch

The route selected may have a few tweaks in the future but overall is likely to stay the same. “The beauty of it is we don’t touch a main road at all,” said O’Boyle.

“We’ll see how year one goes. The beauty of what Martin and Peter have put together on the route is, the Full Monte, which is just under 60km, we hope that that is a challenging route, taking in around the Pier here (in Mountcharles), cycling to Carnaween, running up Carnaween, then on the bike back via a good uphill slog in Meenaguise and then taking in a run on the Warren and beach. You have multi terrain, it is good and challenging. I did it over Christmas time on a wet and windy day and it took me over three and a half hours,” said Rosy Temple.

“So we are expecting that some of the winners will be well under the three hours,” she said.

But while the event will target the elite competitors, the committee wanted it to be attractive to all levels.

“We wanted this event to be accessible to newcomers who might never have done an adventure race but then appeal both locally and across the country that the event would become a race in their diary as an annual event,” said Temple.

“You have to have a difficulty attached to attract the elite competitors,” says Martin.

“We want to make it fun for kids also. You’ve got the people taking part in three different events, then you have the big community involvement in marshalling.

“We have marshals assigned for each junction,” said Martin, who added that they also have back-up because there will be late withdrawals.

“At the end of the day we can sit here and have as many meetings as we want, but it will be the marshals who will run it on the day,” said Martin, who said the marshals will number close to 100.

“We’ve got permission from all the landowners and they’re quite happy for us to put up styles and leave them there. Visually you can see the styles and that's great for the competitors.

“We are very grateful to the landowners and they have been very, very helpful with access. We will leave the area as we got it and anyone caught littering will be disqualified. There will be zero tolerance,” say Rosy and Martin.

Of course to run any big event you need sponsorship and The Monte Challenge has the backing of Magee of Donegal.

“Magee were really glad to come on board. As a family we really love the outdoors. When Martin made the call we were delighted to come on board. But three have been a lot of other local sponsors who have come on board and they’re really what make this event possible,” said Rosy Temple, who added that they were grateful to a host of other local sponsors as well as Donegal Co. Council and local Cllrs Jordan and Kennedy, who were supportive through local community grants.

The committee are thankful to McMonagle Stone, who are providing the unique trophies which will be presented to the first three in  male and female in each of the categories.

The hope for the event is that it will become a permanent fixture on the national adventure race calendar. And in order to achieve that, professional timing and proper digital results will be available to all participants.

Fingers will be crossed in the days leading up to the event that the weather is kind, especially for the stewarding of the event, although conditions will not be a deterrent for the elite participants.

For wishing to participate in the Full Monte or the Half Monte, they must do so online before August 17th. Entries will be taken for the Little Monte up until the day of the race, Saturday 7th September but anyone wishing to take part should do so prior to the day to avoid disappointment.

The action will get underway at 8 a.m. on the day and according to Martin O’Boyle, they will be welcoming the winner back at the finish line by 11 a.m.

“I would predict 2.45 and 2.50 for the elite,” says Martin.

The Half Monte is due off the start line at 8.45 with the Little Monte at 9.30 a.m.

All the participants will get specially designed  medals provided by Titan Sports, Limerick. And for the winners, there will be 23 trophies handed out in total.

“It’s great to have the start and finish within the village and we are really looking forward to it,” say Rosy and Martin.

Jumping for joy (all but Andrew) are the Monte Challenge committee in preparation for the event