baz
07-20-2005, 05:20 PM
2 MTBrider Members compete in Urban Adventure Race…
And Survive!
http://www.ratraceadventure.com/images/rat-race-shiny.gif
Well, it's done, it's over, and I'm never doing that again. Three solid months of training, on bike and on foot and in the water, just to destroy every muscle and tendon in my body over a sunny weekend in Edinburgh. Who's feckin' idea was this anyway?
I am, of course, referring to the Edinburgh Rat Race (http://www.ratraceadventure.com/edinburgh/index.html), a 100 km adventure race over two days which Simon McConnell (Simon_M on the forum), Paddy Boyd and myself took part in.
It was unusual for an adventure race in that it took place in a city rather than out in a remote mountain or forest, I assume so that we were a lot closer to hospitals, etc. Some of the events were a little unusual too. Included were the usual mountain biking, running, kayaking, abseiling, and climbing, but also parkour, and bizarrely, space-hoppering!
It all kicked off on Saturday evening at 7 pm with a 3 hour orienteering event, looking for 30 checkpoints throughout the city, based on instructions and an Edinburgh A-Z (should really have paid attention during those MTBO's Paul McA organised). This sounded reasonably achievable until we realised that a) it's over 15 km long, b) we're on foot, c) Edinburgh is very hilly and d) we had tasks to do at many of the checkpoints. Some of the more exciting ones included chasing down a rickshaw, pouring a perfect pint (no time to drink it), paintballing, horizontal bungeeing, climbing, 'hugging' a pillar at the Edinburgh Parthenon and a spot of parkour or free-running.
Needless to say, we didn't get all to 30 check points. This was due to our strategic decision to save ourselves for the big event the next day and not at all because we were too unfit and couldn't make them in time. No, definitely not that at all. Honest.
We finished at 10.02 pm, incurring a slight penalty for being late, then cleverly joined the queue to have our times downloaded from our wrist 'dibber', rather than the queue to get free food. Another of our great decisions, which meant that we only got some dodgy minestrone instead of lovely sandwiches. Doh! Then we got our route directions for the Sunday epic. This mean sitting up to 1 am planning our route. And when I say planning, I mean Paddy working out where we were meant to go and me and Simon nodding and saying, "yep, that looks about right to me".
An early start the next morning meant there were 400 people running through Princes Gardens counting wee red balls at 8 am on a Sunday. We had to get the right number before we could get our bikes. Then off through Edinburgh to (in no particular order) climb part of Salisbury Crags, abseil down the TUN building, orienteer around a disused quarry, kayak under the Forth Bridge, go for a dip in the Firth of Forth, ride down some pretty steep steps, run around under the vaults of Edinburgh City Chambers, run along the canal, space hop around a shopping centre car park, abseil off one of the access platforms in Murrayfield stadium and complete a lap of the Murrayfield stadium. Oh, as well as cycling about 75 km. All in just over 10 hours. May I suggest that anyone who wants to do this uses something a little lighter than a Kona Coiler.
There's much more info on the sleepmonsters (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk) website including race reports (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php) (only for the Saturday so far but the Sunday should be up soon), and photos (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop.php?basket_ID=1121865509&event_id=1983) (events are on the left in the photo navigation box). There's even one of us finishing (http://www.pcgamesonline.com/mtbr/attachment.php?attachmentid=1022&stc=1) in case you needed proof.
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It was a thoroughly enjoyable event, and we got to see parts of Edinburgh that lots of people have never seen. I'd really recommend it or even other adventure races (there's rat races in Bristol and Manchester and some other adventure races in Ireland, see http://www.adventureireland.co.uk/). I might even do another one some day. Would need to do some training though...
Right, I'm off to bask in the glory of assuming we did really well, at least until the results come out!
On a side note, if you're ever in Edinburgh and feeling a bit peckish, can I recommend the PieMaker (http://%3C/font%3E%3Cfont%20size=%221%22%3Ehttp://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?keywords=&companyName=PieMaker&location=Edinburgh&Submit.x=15&Submit.y=8&searchType=classic), the best little pie shop in the world, who played a significant part in fuelling our way in and around Edinburgh. Who needs dodgy kebabs when you can have piping hot pie at half eleven at night. I wonder if he does franchises…
And Survive!
http://www.ratraceadventure.com/images/rat-race-shiny.gif
Well, it's done, it's over, and I'm never doing that again. Three solid months of training, on bike and on foot and in the water, just to destroy every muscle and tendon in my body over a sunny weekend in Edinburgh. Who's feckin' idea was this anyway?
I am, of course, referring to the Edinburgh Rat Race (http://www.ratraceadventure.com/edinburgh/index.html), a 100 km adventure race over two days which Simon McConnell (Simon_M on the forum), Paddy Boyd and myself took part in.
It was unusual for an adventure race in that it took place in a city rather than out in a remote mountain or forest, I assume so that we were a lot closer to hospitals, etc. Some of the events were a little unusual too. Included were the usual mountain biking, running, kayaking, abseiling, and climbing, but also parkour, and bizarrely, space-hoppering!
It all kicked off on Saturday evening at 7 pm with a 3 hour orienteering event, looking for 30 checkpoints throughout the city, based on instructions and an Edinburgh A-Z (should really have paid attention during those MTBO's Paul McA organised). This sounded reasonably achievable until we realised that a) it's over 15 km long, b) we're on foot, c) Edinburgh is very hilly and d) we had tasks to do at many of the checkpoints. Some of the more exciting ones included chasing down a rickshaw, pouring a perfect pint (no time to drink it), paintballing, horizontal bungeeing, climbing, 'hugging' a pillar at the Edinburgh Parthenon and a spot of parkour or free-running.
Needless to say, we didn't get all to 30 check points. This was due to our strategic decision to save ourselves for the big event the next day and not at all because we were too unfit and couldn't make them in time. No, definitely not that at all. Honest.
We finished at 10.02 pm, incurring a slight penalty for being late, then cleverly joined the queue to have our times downloaded from our wrist 'dibber', rather than the queue to get free food. Another of our great decisions, which meant that we only got some dodgy minestrone instead of lovely sandwiches. Doh! Then we got our route directions for the Sunday epic. This mean sitting up to 1 am planning our route. And when I say planning, I mean Paddy working out where we were meant to go and me and Simon nodding and saying, "yep, that looks about right to me".
An early start the next morning meant there were 400 people running through Princes Gardens counting wee red balls at 8 am on a Sunday. We had to get the right number before we could get our bikes. Then off through Edinburgh to (in no particular order) climb part of Salisbury Crags, abseil down the TUN building, orienteer around a disused quarry, kayak under the Forth Bridge, go for a dip in the Firth of Forth, ride down some pretty steep steps, run around under the vaults of Edinburgh City Chambers, run along the canal, space hop around a shopping centre car park, abseil off one of the access platforms in Murrayfield stadium and complete a lap of the Murrayfield stadium. Oh, as well as cycling about 75 km. All in just over 10 hours. May I suggest that anyone who wants to do this uses something a little lighter than a Kona Coiler.
There's much more info on the sleepmonsters (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk) website including race reports (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php) (only for the Saturday so far but the Sunday should be up soon), and photos (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop.php?basket_ID=1121865509&event_id=1983) (events are on the left in the photo navigation box). There's even one of us finishing (http://www.pcgamesonline.com/mtbr/attachment.php?attachmentid=1022&stc=1) in case you needed proof.
<o =""></o>
It was a thoroughly enjoyable event, and we got to see parts of Edinburgh that lots of people have never seen. I'd really recommend it or even other adventure races (there's rat races in Bristol and Manchester and some other adventure races in Ireland, see http://www.adventureireland.co.uk/). I might even do another one some day. Would need to do some training though...
Right, I'm off to bask in the glory of assuming we did really well, at least until the results come out!
On a side note, if you're ever in Edinburgh and feeling a bit peckish, can I recommend the PieMaker (http://%3C/font%3E%3Cfont%20size=%221%22%3Ehttp://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?keywords=&companyName=PieMaker&location=Edinburgh&Submit.x=15&Submit.y=8&searchType=classic), the best little pie shop in the world, who played a significant part in fuelling our way in and around Edinburgh. Who needs dodgy kebabs when you can have piping hot pie at half eleven at night. I wonder if he does franchises…