News
Ratfans
6 November 2008
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Well, another Rat-tastic season draws to a close and what a year it has been. Here is a wrap up of the year’s action and a preview of next year's adventure challenge – the Rat continues to rock out across the land and further a-field, with loads of locations on the cards and a “smokin’ hot” Gunpowder Plot Early Bird deal for those who fancy saving some cash and signing up this November…
1.) 2009 Dates, locations and adventure race format
2.) Entries open – Early Bird Deal for YOU
3.) Round up from the Event Director
4.) Rat Race on TV this November on Channel 4
5.) 2008 Rat Race Adventure Challenge Series Winners
6.) Rat Race Adventure Challenge Down Under
7.) SleepMonsters PhotoSales
8.) Autumn offers from the Rat Race shop
1.) 2009 Dates, locations and format
The Rat Race adventure challenge expands again: For 2009 we are promoting all existing Rat Races to 2 Day status. For the devoted, you all know that means double the action, and double the City experience. For those needing to know more already, the Saturday evening Mean Streets Prologue is a running and activities compendium and the Sunday adventure event is a cycling dominated day with frequent forays into short runs and big action, and with more emphasis on those two elements, we are going to enable you to enter the Saturday OR the Sunday, OR of course, the whole weekend. We look forward to joining you next year, abseiling from a vast bridge, at some point - no doubt. 2009 Format info is available on the website now here.
Here are the dates for ’09 – keep checking the website for new announcements.
Brighton 13/14 June
Bristol 27/28 June
Edinburgh 18/19 July
Gateshead/ Newcastle 29/30 Aug
Galway 6/7 Sept
London 26/27 Sept
Birmingham TBA – check website this month
Belfast TBA – check website this month
(All dates are provisional and subject to change. Other venues at home or abroad may be added during the autumn and winter months)
2.) Entries open – Early Bird Deal for YOU
In true Rat-Race style, we have a smokin’ hot Gunpowder Plot deal for you Rat Fans. Enter any 2009 adventure challenge event between 5th November and 30th November and save a whopping £105 per team into any the Rat Race Weekender! Once that deal has gone up in smoke, the Early Bird action continues until 1st January 2009 with prices at £84 (Rat Race weekender) offered per individual entry. From 1st Jan ‘09 the prices then resume at regular rates of £99 per person for the full Weekender; with all regular prices held at THIS YEAR’S rates – an incredible deal for an incredible race. Click here to enter.
3.) 2008 Round up from the Event Director
What a year! The Rat Race adventure challenge has expanded from 3 to 8 events in the UK this year, 2 on the Isle of Ireland and 1 outing (to come) in Melbourne, Australia. We’ve seen bags of new action, such as the epic abseil from the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, the “rafting” of the River Lagan rapids in Belfast, a whole episode involving an overactive Leprechaun in Galway, epic sea kayaking in the shadow of the mighty Forth Rail 
Bridge in Edinburgh and the now infamous but oh-so inviting “Secrets” pole dancing challenge in London. Then there’s been some old favourites – the slippery wall has crept into the event on multiple occasions; favourite venues have been re-visited such as Twickenham Rugby Stadium in London and Ratho climbing centre in Edinburgh. Then there have been the competitors…masses of you, enjoying (we hope) a multitude of locations and a cornucopia of devilish Rat-style delights. We have had our first youth competitors too, competing in London within a new class, promoted in association with the Outward Bound Trust - and cleaning up the silverware in the London Mean Streets too! There’s more to come – the adventure race season officially ends in Melbourne on 22/ 23 November as we take the Rat Down Under. And then we start all over again. More venues. More action. Some subtle format changes and a maybe even a few other Rat-badged enterprises. We hope you have a good hibernation and during the long dark days of winter, drop us a line if you have any comments or requests for your next Rat Race adventure challenge. We’ll be there at Rat HQ. 0845 009 4365 and info@ratraceadventure.com. Thanks for joining the Rat Race again for another year…and we look forward to seeing you on the Start line again.
4.) Rat Race on TV this November
on Channel 4
Watch out for the Rat gracing your screens this November. Rat Race Edinburgh will air at 0700 this Saturday 8th November and Rat Race London will air at 0700 on Saturday 22nd November. Both are 30 minute long features and will be action-packed. There will be opportunities to acquire DVDs of these programmes after the programmes have aired.
5.) 2008 Rat Race Adventure Challenge Series Winners
After a yearlong competition in the mainland UK Rat Races, Aberdeen Asset Management created an unassailable lead, and despite their untouchable position, still made an appearance and won the London Rat Race – such is the magnetism of a good competition!
Bruce Duncan, Iona Robertson and Nick Gracie will be going out to race in Melbourne for Team Aberdeen Asset Management, and this was their prize for a tremendous year of Rat Racing. They are a hugely experienced adventure challenge team and are aiming for a Great Britain victory against the Aussies.
Bruce is a current member of the British Mountain Bike Orienteering Team (and his brother is a world champion Orienteer). Iona Robertson is an ex GB triathelte and former British and World 20-24 age-group Duathlon Champion. Nick Gracie is one of the UK's most experienced
adventure racers and has taken part in 3 Adventure Racing World Championships and been a member of the team that won the last 2 British Adventure Racing Championship Races.
Applauds must also go to the other adventure challenge teams and individuals that have taken part in so many Rat Races this year. They are becoming clear masters of the Rat Race format and champions of the Rat Racing family.
The Point Series Standings are listed here;
36 Points. Aberdeen Asset Management
32 Points. SleepMonsters/Inov-8
21 Points. CamRacers
This shows AAMs dominance, SM/Inov-8’s prowess and CamRacers consistency. Congratulations on their great Rat Racing year.
We have a special mention and prizes going to Eddie Winthorpe of SleepMonsters/Inov-8 AND Sabrina Verjee of Cam Racers, with 4 completions in Rat Races - more than any other Rat Fan this year.
6.) Rat Race Down Under
Lining up next to Team Aberdeen Asset Management will be the first Antipodean crowd to get amongst the action at their very own Melbourne Rat Race. This city built on sport is an apt destination for our first South Hemisphere event and is sure to allow other locations to follow suit closely after. Check out the race reports and post-event photos on www.ratraceadventure.com/page215.asp after the event to see what occurs.
7.) SleepMonsters PhotoSales
Reminisce and buy. What better way of remembering your year of Rat Racing than browsing the vast collection of photos on SleepMonsters. These will be bring smiles and gasps as you relive the scale of variety and activity in 2008. Go here for pictures from the Rat Races this year. It's a perfect present for upcoming Christmas!
8.) Autumn offers from the Rat Race shop
It's sale time!
As the leaves and the mercury fall, so do the prices at the Rat Race Store.
Until the end of November, all orders over £40 will get a massive 15% off, plus we'll 
include a Rat Race Buff worth £12! Just go to www.ratraceadventure.com/store and use the discount code WinterSale to bag a bargain.
Improve our product range and win £200 of kit!
Found a killer product that you think we should have in the range? Why not let us know and if our testers agree we'll give you £200 to spend on anything you like in the store. Just email simon@ratraceadventure.com with your suggestions.
Happy hibernation Ratfans and we’ll see you out there in ‘09….
The Rat Race Crew
The Rat Race. Bring Adventure to Life!
