F.A.Q.
Common questions
The challange changed compared to the 2021 edition?
The first edition (2021) was a great learning ground for the beast. It was a lotta fun. The BEAST experimented with the rules of the challenge, however the overall challenge was a bit too complex and there was room for improvement, based on the activity seen.
With that, the Pacers of Darkness took the learnings and went back to hell. On mount doom, the plan grew to take the best things from the 2021 edition and use it as the base for the 2022 edition.
The 2022 has simpler rules, is simpler to explain and should be more engaging. It focuses more on the key beast metrics (6.66km, 666m) and is gamified a lot more. The leaderboard isn't a pure distance leaderboard anymore. Instead, it now focuses around the challenge.
Happy running! WITH THE BEAST
How did this challenge take shape?
The organizers, a collective which goes by the name 'Pacers of Darkness', are a bunch of running/triathlete friends with big aspirations, who have been meeting up for the last 16-18 years on Graspop Metal Meeting. We are all missing some bolts and are a bit crazy.
For a long time the idea was growing to do some crazy running challenge before the metal meeting. First many ideas like "run 666km", "running last run on the campgrounds", "run circle pits", etc. Then, a few weeks ago, we also saw some ultra athletes doing the "Duivelse Uitdaging", initiated by Marek Vis, which sparked our interest once again. Which was for us, a bit too short notice.
But we kept on joking about "the metal challenge", and what started with some funny video calls during the pandemic, ended a few days later with the full challenge where we are now: Run with the BEAST.
It has been quite funny already for us to build this out! Let's see where it goes!
Are you affiliated with Graspop?
No, we just like the festival and found it a great target date range.
Why does challenge continue during the festival?
In normal years (no covid), the challenge ends the day Graspop ends.
Every year, the organisers of the challenge (a collective which goes by the name 'Pacers of Darkness') meet there. After all the long endurance training every year, we also need some days off.
Usually the whole group is completely incapacitated within 1 hour of entering the metal grounds; and can thus not be held responsible for what happens after. So keeping the running streak going is extra hard here.
Since pictures say more than a 1000 screams, here are some pictures of some Pacers of Darkness taken within 1h of graspop arrival:
It's really fun though.