Race Reports

View the Brum Race Report at Sleepmonsters….here

Planners Report:

It’s quite a daunting task gazing over the map of Birmingham at the start of the planning process. Having two venues, the NEC and Birmingham Coty Centre, that had to linked up both simplified and created difficulties in the planning process. After my first recce on the ground with Gary Tompsett it quickly become evident that the route you followed into the city centre via the Parks and Spaghetti Junction and back then along The Grand Union Canal was the logical route. That simplified things.  However, I knew that the fastest teams could ride the entire route much, much quicker than the slower teams. That complicated things.

We opted cluster the Mean Streets checkpoints that involved activity close to BrindleyPlace. This we hoped would mean that the slowest teams would have the opportunity to complete as many of the ‘fun’ challenges as possible whilst still leaving time to return to the NEC. For the fastest teams, I wanted plenty of satellite checkpoints around the city centre that we use up the extra time in the city centre they would have from their faster cycling speed. Unfortunately I injured myself the week before the event and had to do much of the planning using Google Earth!

A couple of team commented that the fire hydrant at checkpoint “Bath Row / C8” (Question: “Complete the number for the Fire Hydrant (sign) located on the Bath Row bridge above the canal?”) wasn’t there. I went back on Sunday morning to check this and it is there.

We tried very hard to get onto the roof at Birmingham City Football Club for the abseil but 3 different site meetings had to be abounded because of high winds. The last site meeting was on the Thursday before the event and at that stage we had to take the safe bed and use the stairwell.

I personally enjoyed the planning at Land Rover the most. In early February I ran the entire course myself and there was ice on the water obstacles so I didn’t feel sorry for any of the Rat Racers who had tropical conditions in comparison. Finally, I got to hang the tags to mark the course from the luxury of a Range Rover, which must be most planners dream.

I hope that you enjoyed the event as much as me.

Shane Ohly
Course Planner