Edinburgh 2006 Report
Report by Rob Howard from Sleepmonsters.co.uk: Sleepmonsters
Seek the ninja
For Rat Race newbies arriving at race HQ in Edinburgh is an exciting and slightly unnerving experience ... this is not your normal low-key setting for an adventure race – it’s about as far from a village hall as you can get!
In Princes Street Gardens, in the middle of the city centre and right underneath the castle the event centre is a mixture of race, concert, exhibition and party – all going on at once. As teams registered through Saturday afternoon the bands had started up on the Ross Bandstand stage and crowds were gathering in the amphitheatre of seats. Visitors were wandering among the sponsor and retailer stalls, having a go at a bike skills course, climbing wall and nearby zip wire. A big LED screen was being erected, and in the midst of all this racers were receiving their Columbia race shirts, which marked them out as the stars of the show.
At 16.30 everyone gathered in front of the stage in race kit to hear the introductory briefings from Jim Mee and Gary Tompsett then Gill Watson of Team Accelerate High5 bounded onto the stage to get everyone warmed up (as if they were not hot enough!) with a few shimmys, shakes and stretches. Anyone looking down from Princes Street saw a small army of black clad exercise fanatics dancing in 90 degree heat!
At 16.00 the checkpoint locations were given out and everyone rushed off to mark up their A to Z maps and try to figure out a route for the 3 hours they would spend racing round the city on a Saturday night. This wasn’t easy. There were 32 checkpoints scattered all around the city centre with no obvious route. 17 of these had activities to complete, with only hints at what was involved or how long it might take. One said ‘Cow Challenge’, which turned out to be throwing a hoop over the head of one of hundreds of brightly decorated model cows scattered all over city (as part of the Cow Parade exhibition) and another read ‘Bar Activity’ - which turned out to be beer mat flipping.
Seek the Ninja
By Rob Howard
The joker in the pack was the ‘River Ninja’ – the moving checkpoint for the night. A ‘ninja marshal’ was at 3 locations along the Water of Leith during the night at certain times, so courses needed to be plotted to meet her at the right times to shout ‘Ninja’ at her and get the points.
Park Life
After a brief delay the 180 teams were set off, racing up to the top of the gardens to collect the points values for the CP’s in a mad melee where a lot of teams were split up and shouting for each other in the momentary mayhem. Then they were gone – out into the streets to meet the challenges awaiting them.
Previous Edinburgh ratties will have recognised one or two locations, the spooky Wariston Cemetery and the Cargo pub at canal basin, where they had to lift each other up to reach the Sportident box, watched by bemused drinkers sat out in the evening breeze. One Rookie team stopped off here to use the cashpoint before the after race party – good advance planning!
Most of the challenges and checkpoints were new and as imaginative as ever. A couple used park playgrounds, one involving running up the side of a slide carrying a sandbag, then placing it on the slide to whiz it back down to the marshal below.
There was a chance to revisit the cycle speedway track at Redbraes Park used on the main race last year and race against the Edinburgh Falcons club on bikes with no brakes round a cinder track. There were a few spills on the tight corners. And just beside this was a river crossing using the infamous Sevylor canoes. Yes, they were back, but not being paddled. They were strung out across the river as a very wobbly pontoon bridge with a checkpoint in the middle of it. Scrambling across without tipping into the river was difficult and not everyone stayed dry. They got wet feet coming back across anyway – by running over the top of a small weir 100m downstream.
The other cycle activity was a small ‘North Shore’ course set up at Ocean Terminal at the northern end of the course, and as long as everyone had a go they were allowed to continue. Completing the tricky final section that involved a tightly controlled turn wasn’t a requirement of the challenge – fortunately!
At the Inverleith Rugby Park the challenge was to kick a conversion, something James Thurlow of Open Adventure stepped up to do and scored first time, much to his surprise! “I’ve never kicked a rugby ball in my life,” he said.
Everything did not go as smoothly at the ‘aerial photo orienteering’ on the side of Arthur’s seat in Holyrood Park, where teams were given a single CP to find marked on an aerial photo. “There were people everywhere!” said Thurlow. “For some reason everyone assumed it was on the top of the hill, then realised it wasn’t and scattered like ants.”
“We should have just taken a compass bearing,” was Helen Jackson’s comment, “but didn’t think of it at the time!” Bruce Duncan of The North Face had no problems however. “I used to do my hill rep training there, so I knew exactly where to go!”
Team mate Nicola McLeod is from Edinburgh too so they had local knowledge on their side and made good use of it as they were the only team to clear the course on the night.
Wheelchairs and Armchairs
One of the highlights of the evening was the Wheelchair rugby at the The Crags Sports Centre. This had been set up by regular racer Rob Priestley and his brother Richard, who is on the Scottish team. Racers were sat in the specially constructed chairs (which cost £2000 each), and pushed their way down to the end of the gym to receive a football, which they had to get into a goal past two members of the team.
As they moved forward, uncertain what would happen they were met by one of the team racing straight at them like a crazed bumper car ... then ... Crunch! They were jolted back by the impact and in the game! (It’s the only wheelchair sport that involves contact.) Some were a bit shocked at first and everyone was finding it strenuous trying to speed past their opponents or twist and turn. The team were clearly going very easy on them but did lock up the metal rims of the chairs at times, leaving the racers stranded and immobile. (You can find out more about the sport at www.gb-rugby.com.)
Not all the checkpoints were so active – at 24b Barony Street, the instruction was ‘find the student slacker’. This was the house being used as race HQ and inside was marshals Lana and Jackie playing the role of the student slacker. “We had or pyjamas on and were sat watching T.V.” said Jackie. “We watched Dr. Who, The Simpsons and Peter Pan and played Boggle – it was tough! Some of the racers just ran in and said ‘Where is the checkpoint’, but others opened the door and stuck their heads in – then said, ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you!’ and went out again. We called them back.”
Ninja Night
Having just as much fun was Rachel Henderson who got the job of Ninja for the night and donned her black costume and hood to steal through the night and practice her Ninja moves. When they found her teams had to shout ‘Ninja!” at her then she gave them the Sportident box. “Most of them were getting into it,” Rachel said as she watched the film of her in silhouette under a bridge, chopping and kicking on the big screen for all to see after the course had closed.
(This is one of the great features of the race – as teams finish, download and get some food they can watch the night’s activities on a huge screen above them, as can all the spectators. Footage is shown throughout Sunday too.)
At the course close around 22.00 teams began walking in, or racing if they were late and trying to minimise their penalties. The North Face were happy with their clearance, but when Team SleepMonsters.com raced in 4 minutes late they were not so content. “I thought we could clear it,” said Chris McSweeny, “but the final checkpoints took us too long. The one where we had to scramble up a steep muddy bank was bordering on dangerous!”
His team were still 4th on the night, and would start the day with a 16 minute deficit on The North Face. Second on the night were the all-male team ‘Possibly Edinburgh's Partying Phenomenon Enhances Rat-racing’ and third were Nopesport, who would have 14 minutes to make up on The North Face on Sunday’s main race.
As teams eat and collected their course books for the morning there was little time to dwell on the night or join the party going on in the main marquee (unless you were a Rookie team who had been to the cashpoint!). There was a complex course to plot for the morning and a 07.00 start to prepare for. The prologue was over and it’s 3 hours of fast and fun racing was just the warm up for the main event next day.
Thanks To
Paddy for a wonderful display of impatient driving as he drove us around while we were taking the pictures.
The results:
Adventure Category
1. Sleepmonsters.com - 9:33:35
2. Team Accelerate High 5 - 10:14:14
3. Team Accelerate PUMA A - 10:21:34
Rookie Class
(Saturday Night Prologue Only)
1. Kildonan Ride Again - 325pts
2. Should Know Better - 315pts
3=. Visit Scotland 1 & Visit Scotland 2 - 300pts
Full results from the Edinburgh race can be downloaded here(Excel Format)
