News
Edinburgh rats return en-masse
18 July 2007
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The Rat Race returned to Edinburgh, and West Princes Street Gardens, for the fourth year with the city continuing to offer a difficult and diverse challenge as racers faced checkpoints ranging from the strenuous to the sublime.
With the largest entry seen at a Rat Race, the event village was buzzing in anticipation of the challenges that lay ahead for the Mean Streets Prologue on Saturday evening as racers registered, checked kit, browsed the stalls and soaked up the sun in advance of the start time of 5pm. As the Princes Street shoppers headed for home they were faced by over 600 Columbia clad racers racing out of the gardens seeking their share of the crazy checkpoints scattered across the city.
Many of the points were to be found in the North and with sunshine on Leith, racers found themselves at the hairdressers for all sorts of crazy cuts, dispelling accusations that the Scottish diet is unhealthy by ‘enjoying’ deep fried Mars bars and hanging out (or rather spinning out) in a playpark (bottle of Buckfast not compulsory). Down at Ocean Terminal and around the regenerated docklands, racers had to toughen up at a boxing club, climb the Totem and have a quick tour and nose around the luxurious Scottish Apartment building. Chasing a bride, choccy biscuits, shooting hoops and scrambling round in bushes were just some of the other challenges faced by racers.
A new penalties system made tactics interesting for teams but by Saturday night when the scores were all tallied up there were clear leaders in the form of Team Inov-8 on 428 points and local athletic team Corstorphine AAC on 420 points. Bristol winners Aberdeen Asset Management were 2nd on 383 points, just 2 points ahead of Luther Blissett, while behind the top three teams were tightly packed. Second and third spot on the Mean Streets course went to The Moonrunners with 321 points and Duex Hotties et un Hunk with 305 points.
Bright and early on Sunday morning teams assembled to face a gruelling course spanning Edinburgh from Cramond and Granton in the North to the Pentlands in the South. After a quick run round Princes Street Gardens teams were dispatched to put together a puzzle of a map showing a number of checkpoints in the nearby New Town area. Unfortunately for many they hadn’t rubbed the sleep from their eyes when reading the instructions so collected all 150 points rather than the 50 required!
After completing that task it was off on the bikes to tackle the infamous steps, this year taking in two sets to provide twice as many thrills and spills, before heading off along cycle paths to Cramond. After a refreshing swim down the river teams continued across the causeway to distant Cramond Island where they had to storm Fort Zielinski, climbing up a rockface while being pelted from the rampart above by defiant defenders armed with flour, eggs, bananas and anything else to hand. After recovering a pass code from a prisoner on the other side of the island they were then able to access a funky piece of cliff traverse before beating the tide and getting back to their bikes. After a strange kit burial activity in the sand, they made their way to Granton for an impressive Dry Tooling climb – climbing with ice axes at Atrium Games’ ‘works wall’. The next kayaking stage was taking the leaders 20 minutes and the rest 50, but it was sublime urban kayaking amongst Granton’s latest flat developments. This was turning into a long day, and this was only the first of two race loops north of the City!
En-route back to the city centre teams were faced with a surprise ‘free hanging’ abseil from an old railway bridge into the Water of Leith river and before heading to a ‘Pitstop’ back in the event village where they were faced with the challenge of deflating and reinflating the tyres of one team bike. This was a frenetic and awkward activity for some, not versed with race repairs, and there were several very loud bangs from the over zealous pumpers!
Back on the bikes once more, teams made their way to Edinburgh University’s Kings Building’s where they were faced another orienteering challenge before making the task of downing a pint of coke look difficult; (one team member blindfolded - feeding another, directed by the third). It was messy. After this it was a ride through the Hermitage Park and up to Swanston and the Pentlands where Midlothian Snowsports Centre was the next port of call. Rubber rings provided a dizzyness enducing task before some teams took advantage of the chairlifts to have a crafty rest, avoiding a tough climb before seeking out some more orienteering checkpoints.
A mountain biking section in the Pentlands followed before a less bumpy cycle back to central Edinburgh where Heart of Midlothian’s Tynecastle football stadium played host to abseiling and climbing challenges before teams made their way back to the Gardens and the finish line where one last challenge remained. After a day of biking, climbing, kayaking, running and more, racers had to hold their nerve and steady their aching arms to shoot some hoops in front of a public-packed Ross Theatre before being allowed to cross the finish line.
A superb second day effort by Team The North Face saw them first over the line, with a time of 6 hours and 34 minutes, just over 11 minutes clear of Saturday victors Team Inov-8 with The North Face Flight Series in 3rd. Team Inov-8’s lead from the Prologue was enough for them to take the overall victory with a time of 9:15:28, with Team The North Face having to settle for 2nd once again after rising from 13th overnight while Aberdeen Asset Management finished in 3rd spot. Top all female team were once again Team Columbia SALT in 8th ahead of an ever-increasing field of all women teams.
1. 09:15:28 Mix Team Innov-8
2. 09:29:18 Mix Team The North Face
3. 10:10:17 Mix Aberdeen Asset Management
4. 10:14:37 Mix TNF Flight Series
5. 10:19:51 Mix Total Meadow Bankers
6. 10:37:15 Mix Half Past Seven
This leaves a tightly poised battle between Team Inov-8, The North Face and Aberdeen Asset Management for the overall series prize, which will come to a close in London at the end of September.
Click below for results:
 abseil |  Rubber Ring |  Boker |
 Biking |  Basketball Finale |
