SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - The Rat Race (I took part in the London Rat Race last year) is coming to Ireland. Great news.

The much-loved event, having experienced runaway success in Britain, is now set to reach the shores of the Emerald Isle with 2 new and exciting events planned for Galway and Belfast this summer.

Why foreign events call our island the ‘emerald isle’ when advertising to the Irish, I don’t know. We invented that term to increase American tourism, we don’t actually call ourselves that.

Belfast has an event base at City Hall. On the 9th August, the Rat Race sees competitors running, biking, kayaking, abseiling, climbing and navigating their way around the city in a course that is only revealed hours before they begin.

Here’s our transformation in 2007 from Rat Racers to TGUers!

Rat Race Creator Jim Mee gives a preview:

“Belfast offers a really eclectic mix of adventure opportunities for the Rat Race. From the obvious natural facets such as Cave Hill and the river, to more overtly urban features such as the re-generated city centre and the wealth of landmarks scattered around the city, the Rat Race in Belfast will reveal so many different layers of adventure within the city in a manner never really experienced before. Whether it’s zipping around the Cathedral Quarter on a bike or getting to grips with some aquatic pursuits, or simply revelling in the hustle and bustle of the city whilst hunting for quirky checkpoints we have set up with local venues and businesses, this event is really going to entertain. We aim to showcase Belfast’s industrial past alongside the fast-paced urban development of the present day and this quirky event gives us the opportunity to really shine a different sort of light on the city, to residents and visitors alike. We think there is a superb mixture of sights and sounds on and off the beaten track that we can feature in the event. This is an exciting event to plan, which means it will be even more exciting to take part in!”

Galway is on the 6th of September.

With the success of the Gael Force West multi-sport races in Mayo and Galway, the Rat Race organisers know this area well and with their office just up the road in Westport, this event is sure to uncover the very best of this superb fun-loving city.

My video from 2007 in London:

Unfortunately, both events will operate on the Rat Race’s new 1 day “Nine 2 Five” format and not the 2 day (night & day) event like London.

I’d quite like to do at least one of these… might be a good opportunity to see Belfast.

Full entry details, training tips and full event information can be found at www.ratraceadventure.com or telephone the Rat Race Ireland office on 098 28324/ 098 28316.

Email Siobhan at the Rat Race Westport office at info@ratraceadventure.com for particular questions on either of these new and exciting events.

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - TGU did it! We finished (just with a few technical mishaps) the London 2007 Rat Race. The Rat Race is an urban adventure race, taking all the activities of the outdoor arena but set in a city. Results are in, and we’ve come 150th out of ~190 teams in our class.

Arriving on the Saturday for registration it hit us - this event was big. It turned out to break all records and was the biggest adventure race ever held in the UK. There were over 750 competitors racing! Saturday at 3.45pm we were given our checkpoints for the prologue and spent 1hr before the race plotting them on the super scale map of London and fitting the best route around them. For a warm-up this was no mean feat as we set off at 7pm on a lap of London, aka a half marathon.

Here’s some video I took:

Saturday night was designed to disorientate & challenge you all on foot. Each ‘rat trap’ included an activity. We visited the Ministry of Sound and had head-torches out to find 3 different promotional leaflets in a flashing smoke filled maze of thumping music! On to the Imperial war museum and climbing cargo nets strapped over the large battle ship guns. Some parkour on the South bank, and up to a gym near Picadilly circus where we had to do 250m on a rowing machine, while other team mates went at it with press-ups and a cycle machine. Down to Stanford’s map shop where we got a bearing to Columbia from an atlas, then to the Ellis Brigham ice climbing wall which they’d set a cargo net up to reach and ring a bell. From here we hot footed it up to the City for some sudoku challenges and some hidden marshals around the Gerkin and tower of London. We got through the finish line after 2hrs 34mins of full-out running and scored 206pts which put us in 149th place out of 190 teams in the Adventure Class. We were pleased. We were given a map, and checkpoints for the Sunday race and after our free pasta re-fueling we headed home for 2hrs of map plotting into the night. The route was completed by midnight, but it was alarms set for 5am.

More pasta in the morning, and off to the race start at 7am. Sunday required massive effort and based on the recommendation of the race director we joined the other non-elite teams and took a 90min time penalty to skip the morning foot stage and get on the road straight away. It went something like this… a ~50km cycle out to near Heathrow and back including activities such as flights of steps, keg carrying, climbing over lorries, cycling over lorries, stripping off and jumping in the Thames to swim around a pontoon, flying-fox, rope bridges, abseiling off the highest part of Twickenham Stadium, a 7km foot race around Richmond Common, mud tracks, boarding & searching for checkpoints on the HMS Belfast battle ship and much more.

The whole course was tracked by fantastic wrist bands that tracked your time in/out of every checkpoint. These were then downloaded on return to the finish and we were all given print-outs.

Flickr Set

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The Rat Race is where teams of three race in a multi-disciplined challenge of navigation, endurance, skills and guts running, climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, abseiling, and tackling a course that’s only revealed hours before they begin, all within a concrete urban environment - London City on 29th/ 30th September! Watch the Promo Video!

Adventure Class
This is the full throttle full fat fully loaded Rat Race: a 3 hour evening “Mean Streets” prologue followed by an all day race on the Sunday. ANYONE can take part (subject to general fitness requirements) and any team will have equal chance to shine on the differing activities in the course. There will be fantastic prizes for first, second and third places and spot prizes throughout the field. The Saturday night event is the same as below (so read about it there) and on the Sunday this is where you draw from your adventure arsenal your bike, your climbing gear, you map and compass and your slickest lycra. Because you are going supersonic on a rampage across the city by bike, boat, foot and rope. You’ll finish some time in the afternoon and you will have absolutely loved (nearly) every minute of it. And you will have seen the city in a totally unique and different way.

Mean Streets Class
Again, the entry for the Mean Streets Class is open to ANYONE too and is designed to give a taste of the event atmosphere and of adventure racing in a bite sized chunk! OR you go all out and run for miles collecting as many checkpoints as you can. It’s fast, it’s furious and it’s absolutely hilarious. The Mean Streets Class is also the 3 hour evening prologue for the above Adventure Class entrants. Most of the event is based on foot and you may walk, run, crawl or hopscotch round the course, depending on what you like, as the format allows for fun, exertion and entertainment over lesser distances. There are plenty of prizes allocated. The object is to achieve as many points as possible by visiting as many checkpoints as possible; some of these may be in famous (or lesser known) places, there may be activities or there may be special tasks to complete.

I’m planning on entering a team.

-Robin-