Event Disciplines

Foot Travel

You can run or walk the key is to select suitable footwear and travel at whatever pace is best for your team. Within the prologue section, or rookie event, you will be on your feet for 3 hours. In the Sunday event section, you will be swapping between the bike and your feet a few times; the key is to set a consistent pace that will see you through to the end of the race, as a team.

Mountain Biking

Your bike needs to be robust, not flash. And although we dictate that it must be a mountain bike, there are a number of different road surfaces you will encounter. You will no doubt have noticed the pictures of people careering down flights of steps; well, that is part of the action but just as many people walk as fly down these on their bikes. So don't worry about the steps. For technical single-track junkies, there should be some challenging riding sections and for those that don't fancy the berms and bumps, some chicken runs. Being in a city, you will be on the road a fair amount, but rarely on main carriageways; we would rather show you the ins and outs of the city from lesser travelled routes and thoroughfares.

Navigation

This is the backbone of the Rat Race the ability to move as a team with map in hand. We use a number of differing styles of mapping and this can prove interesting for even the most seasoned of orienteers how many times have you navigated from an aerial photograph, in a city. You should familiarise yourself with classical mapping from the city environment, particularly A to Z maps. Whilst the navigation underpins the whole Race, it is not designed to catch people out. And, with so many people on the course and friendly locals out and about in the city, you will rarely be very far away from help with directions!

Rope-work

The Rat Race has to be the only opportunity anywhere you get to abseil off buildings and engage with the architecture of the city in such a dramatic adventurous way. You may be climbing something, you may be descending, but you are always safe and under the supervision of our professional safety crews. Enjoy the views, enjoy the surreality and next time you drive through town, gaze skywards and wonder what building we're busy organising activity on, in or over!

Many people ask us about the climbing or abseiling and skill levels required. You have to be able to tie into a harness and be confident on a rope. You DO NOT need to be Spiderman. If you're unsure about your skill level, then we can take you through a one-hour refresher course before the event on the Saturday morning. So enjoy it, don't worry about it!

Parkour

You may have seen Jump London or Jump Britain and watched lean Frenchmen, or "traceurs", jumping from rooftop to rooftop. We work with PK traceurs in each city to develop sections of the course that take their inspiration from Parkour raversing walls, vaulting benches, swinging round lamp-posts and generally using the built environment as an obstacle course through which to flow freely. That is the name of the game. It's fun and fast. You'll love it.

Kayaking

This is the arena where we have fun watching! The difference in skill levels of various paddlers is always evident in the Rat Race. You should be able to paddle a kayak in a straight line; you are not going to be descending the Zambezi in Bristol City Centre. It's fun to be afloat and the teams that paddle together as a team prevail. You may be on the sea, on a canal or on a river. You'll always be under the watchful eye of our safety-kayakers and safety-launches and if you're a little rusty in the water, take advantage of the Saturday morning refresher course before the race.

Now that's an event!