Bristol 2005 Report

All race reports written and provided by Sleepmonsters.co.uk. Visit Sleepmonsters for all of this year's Rat Race reports as they happen.

 

Bristol 2005 Report:

 

The results:

Elite Category

1. Saab Salomon - 7.27.54
2. Macpac Anatom – 7.55.25
3. SleepMonsters – 7.58.28

Adventure Category

1. Supperstars – 8.20.11
2. TeamQuest – 8.20.21
3. The Drowning Rats – 8.30.44

Rookie Class
(Saturday Night Prologue Only)

1. AOAC – 270 pts
2. El Vino Cheapo – 248 pts
3. Are We There Yet? – 240 pts

Rats In Port
By: Rob Howard

As a seafaring port Bristol has had some rats on it’s wharfs and waterways before, and they had some Rat Racers in the harbour last weekend for the first Crest Nicholson Rat Race Urban Adventure.

These rats explored the docks and waterways, but they also spread out to streets all round the city, to the rooftops and an office boardroom, bungeed and BMX’d, fired rifles and got shouted at by the Navy, scampered around in caves and abseiled into the Avon Gorge.

It was an action packed weekend, a very competitive race and great fun for experienced racers and those new to adventure racing. They all visited places in Bristol they’d never otherwise have found, and tried challenges that came as a complete surprise.

The A-Z of Adventure
By: Rob Howard

As darkness descended on Bristol on Saturday night the ‘Mean Streets’ prologue to the first ever Crest Nicholson Rat Race Urban Adventure got underway. In packs of 3 and wearing distinctive black The North Face shirts the rat racers spread out across the city, down dark alleys and through quiet parks and churchyards. They scampered along brightly lit streets where pub and club goers spilled out of the doors and into offices and buildings in the city centre and suburbs.

Throughout the afternoon the race village had been busy as teams registered and passers by discovered a new entertainment centre on the floating harbour. (Which is being extensively redeveloped by Crest Nicholson – in case you were wondering where the name came from!) Inside the Lloyds TSB Amphitheatre, set just behind the popular @Bristol attraction, the village was built around a stage set up by local radio station GWR and included activities like paint balling, bungee jumping off a crane, skateboard zone, climbing and kids entertainment.

There was music and food, all the fun of the fair, and in amongst all this teams were registering and being kit checked throughout the afternoon, ready for the first stage of the race in the evening, when they were top of the bill and the star attraction.

Rookie Racers

For the Rookie teams the 3 hour Mean Streets Prologue would be their main event, as they would not race on Sunday, and in the big race atmosphere, with so many purposeful looking teams around, some were understandably nervous about what was to come.

Fergus Fitzgerald and Jo Bromley of team ‘Are We There Yet’ had only entered a week earlier and had never done any orienteering. “Not since I was in the Scouts” said Fergus, who lives in Edinburgh and had seen some of last year’s race there. “I live in Bristol,” Jo said, “and thought I should give the race some home town support. It’s a chance to get a different perspective on the city and looked like a fun way to see it. It’s not like entering a race … or it didn’t appear that way! The hardest thing is finding a team. We’ve lost two team mates in a day.”

At that time there were just two of them after a late replacement for their original 3rd member had arrived, taken fright and left again! But at the last minute they lured a ‘rat faced’ Gill Watson away from Jon, Mark and Robbos Whisky stall, not realising just how experienced their new team mate was.

Team 14, Solumnbulcylists’, were new to adventure racing and having a go at the full course, but had a late replacement too. “Our friend decided to ride back from the pub … and injured his back. His name is Mark Sheriff – make sure you let everyone know that!” Their new team member said, “I was supposed to be going on holiday with the girlfriend this weekend, but she can wait!” – he didn’t give his name. Then he added, “We can’t orienteer yet, but we have a highlighter pen, so we’re prepared!”

Another Rookie team ‘Not Without My Scalpel’ (all vet students), were taking a cautious start to adventure racing. “Maybe we could do the whole course, but we have our exams and there is always next year,” said Kayleigh Gilkes. She’d visited the SleepMonsters and Rat Race stands at the Outdoor Adventure Show at Olympia and was now on the start line ready to give adventure racing a go.

A to Z of Adventure

They were lined up for the mass start with some of the UK’s top teams, all clutching their A to Z maps, ready marked up with the checkpoints which had been given out after Course Director Gary Tompsett’s briefing. They only had to collect the points values on the edge of the amphitheatre before heading out into the big city to play, finding checkpoints with mystery (and sometimes bizarre) challenges.

For the first couple of hours there was fading daylight as teams sought out the checkpoints. The instructions listed the grid reference and the grid number on the A-Z, and the experienced ‘Team Mixed Potatoes’ (Mike and Katherine Poole & Simon Webb), who were more used to the OS References, took a while to realise it was the A-Z grid no. and street name they needed. (They were looking in the A-Z listing to find the street name!) The elevation was given too, as A-Z’s are a bit thin on contours, and because some of the CP’s were placed high.

As the local course planner Pete James had included some the city’s historical locations, though racers won’t have known this. The flat topped metal posts in Corn Street, known as nails, were the origin of the expression ‘pay on the nail’ and the ‘Nipper’ checkpoint, a small dog statue, was the original HMV dog. Other spots included the first Wesleyan Chapel, old prison gate, and Cabot Tower.

The Grammar school hosted the ‘Back to Climbing School Challenge’ on their indoor wall, where only one team member had to complete a traverse. They got only one attempt, so a slip would cost 10 points, which was what happened to Nick Gracie of Aberdeen Asset Management. It was costly slip as all the top teams cleared the course and those 10 points were a harsh penalty and cost them a place in next mornings chasing start.

Out in Castle Park there was a Parkour Challenge, jumping from rock to rock, and there was a rock slide on St. Valentines Rocks, taken at the risk of a turned ankle ... and a wedgie on the rougher rocks at the bottom! There was a 15-minute orienteering course, and back at the village a go on the horizontal bungee and paint balling. The paint balling was hosted by the flamboyant Steve Showtime and by the end of the evening he was clutching his beer can and waving everyone in to have a go. “Come on and try it, it’s free! … Free, I can’t believe it, costing me a fortune it is!”

Fantasy AR

There were some queues for the bungee as almost everyone left it until last, and also out on the course, especially at the more complex challenges like the ‘Boardroom Challenge’- a checkpoint straight out of the imagination of Gary Tompsett.

On arrival at the Bristol Post offices teams were directed 6 floors up in the lift – a small lift that soon had an unhealthy fetid odour. (Hopefully, it was gone by the time the lift was in use again next morning!) Then they queued up outside the Boardroom, waiting to be invited in for the challenge. One slightly worried raced said, “Why are they all coming out smiling. Why?” He was soon to find out.

Two young gentlemen in smart suits invited the teams in and ushered them to the far end of a long, long boardroom table, while they took their seats at the far end for an ‘interview’. They introduced themselves as Mr. Rat and Mr. Race.

In fact all the teams (who were waiting for some action or a request to do a challenge) had to do was answer a couple of ‘interview’ questions. Some were straight forward and others bizarre, like; “Do you think Dastardly and Mutley will ever win Whacky Races?” Asked about their name Team Mixed Potatoes got into the spirit of the challenge and concocted an elaborate story about importing a new super potato from S.Africa!

Perhaps even more unnerving was the activity at HMS Flying Fox, a small navy compound across the river Avon in the suburbs (not a ship). On arrival teams had to choose 2 out of 3 challenges, and the nearest to the entrance was through a set of double doors leading to large hall with a polished floor. Standing smartly to attention inside, in a crisp uniform, was C.P.O. Pete Dunn, of the S.W. Area Sea Cadets and he promptly boomed out an order to stand to attention and smarten up, before putting the startled team through drill practice.

In no time they were marching up and down, saluting and being told they were performing like ballet dancers or the woodentops. Some had the startled look of rabbits caught in car headlamps and fell apart, not knowing their right from their left and when dismissed a few rushed to the broom cupboard in true sitcom style in their haste to get out.

Keith Byrne of The North Face was shown up badly alongside team mates who are both in the army – though as Ski Sharp was quick to point out the Navy ‘don’t do it right!’. Helen Jackson of Saab Salomon and Jennifer Brown of SleepMonsters were two who were up on a charge of ‘giggling on parade’! C.P.O. Dunn played it straight barking orders at them from first to last and had almost lost his voice by the end of the evening. He was one of the star performers of the night.

The other tasks at the base were to carry sandbags over a lorry, and .22 rifle range shooting where CPO Norman Sheldon condensed 4 hours instruction into 4 minutes before teams shot on the range. After shooting they had to collect their targets and present them to CPO Matthew Marsh before shouting “We have no live ammunition in our possession! Chief!”, and take their targets with them for scoring later.

Village Life

Back at the finish teams ran in past waterside bars and clubs to the bemusement and amusement of the Saturday night revellers. The beer tent and spa bath were open, but it was already 11pm and the course was given out for the main event next day and needed to be marked up. Some teams had a late night doing this, others left it until the morning.

No one was surprised race favourites Saab Salomon had pulled out a clear lead, 12 minutes ahead of 2nd place Team SleepMonsters. Taking the Pith were 4 seconds down on SleepMonsters and Macpac Anatom were less than 2 minutes behind them. These 4 teams would be in a chasing start on Sunday for the main event.

Among the adventure class teams Quest were ahead of the Usual Suspects, Supperstars and Mixed Potatoes, while the top Rookie team were ‘AOAC’. All the Rookies, and all the teams, had smiles on their face after a lively night out on the town, with plenty of live entertainment! Bristol Rat Racing was off to a spectacular start.

Rat Fun @Bristol
By: Rob Howard

The last minute map markers were rushing to the start line 10 minutes after leaders Saab Salomon had set off leading the chasing start. They ran a quick loop around the block led by a pacer, finished a fun challenge in the nearby plaza, and were off across town pursued by the other 3 teams in the chasing start.

Twenty minutes later, after a fast and frantic run, the full rat pack arrived in the @Bristol plaza, which has a series of fountains and sculptures and a futuristic building shaped like a reflective silver ball. This was too good a chance to miss, and the marshals instructed all the competitors to collect a red The North Face stress ball out of one fountain pools, run around the ‘Silver Ball’ and down the length of another pool, before throwing their ball to finish the challenge and continue. It was chaotic for a while, but a spectacular sight on a bright sunny morning as the runners splashed through the water.

Stage two was a loop on bikes using cycle tracks which lead out to the East of the city, visiting parks and using a canal towpath for a while. Included in the stage was an abseil off the Bristol and West office building, which the Elite teams did at the start of their ride and the Adventure teams at the end.

This was the first of 3 big ropes stages in the day, the most ever in a British race, though all were time-outs for safety reasons. This first one was off a tall office block, abseiling down beside the glass front of the building to land by the entrance. It was a long way down and Chris McSweeny of Team SleepMonsters was feeling the heat from friction on the rope. “I think I need new gloves,” he said, shaking his hands to cool them off.

Teams were quickly finding the route book instructions needed to be followed very closely. The all female team ‘Buff Endure’ lost time by failing to do this, relying on ‘local knowledge’ rather than following instructions! They had their own battle ahead with SALT – that’s the new Scottish Adventure Ladies Team. (When they heard Buff Endure had switched from the shorter Adventure class up to the Elite they’d done the same!)

Anthony Emmet of The North Face Flight Series commented; “You have to stop using the map so much, as it lacks detail and is wrong in places, and follow the road names and left, right instructions closely.” His team mate Robyn Ferrar was an early casualty on the ride, suffering a nasty crash into a metal panel fence when she caught her sleeve on the handlebars while adjusting her mapboard. She broke some bones in her hand and came away with a cast after a trip to A&E.

Lost Underground

The long ride ended at an old wooden sea scout hut on Redcliffe Wharf where piles of Sevylor canoes were waiting. (Yes, the Sevy’s were back … and they were the same ex-ACE Race ones with the original mud from previous races!) This was a combined stage of canoeing around the harbour, exploring the city from the water, and caving, exploring some of it’s underground passages.

The cave entrance was beside the hut, a metal door leading to labyrinthine passages and for some teams to despair and disaster! In fact they were tunnels not caves, dug out of the sandstone to provide ships ballast and materials for glass making and later used for storage of tea and ivory. A reminder the area now used for cruising and waterside restaurants was once one of the busiest ports in the world.

Inside the caves it was pitch dark, so that with a head torch off you really could not see your hand in front of your face, and the tunnels were very complex. A map was given out, but most teams were soon disoriented and struggling to find the 3 controls as they raced around, searching the red sandstone walls for signs of a sportident box.

MacPac Anatom were pressing hard to catch the leaders, and succeeding … until the caves. Andy Simpson had the map, but his top class orienteering skill was of no use and the team fumbled around for over 30 minutes before John Laughlin lead them out. Saab Salomon had taken just 7 minutes, much to the surprise of course planner Pete James.

Either Side of the Avon

One out in the open air again it was short bike ride, but with a long drag up Constitution Hill, to reach the next ropes stage starting from the downs on top of the Avon Gorge. Here there were two activities, and a Red Bull gazebo on the grass to take a pit stop under.

The first was an abseil down the cliff side to the bottom of the gorge, with the Elite undertaking a longer descent. (Around the course they also had some extra checkpoints compared to the Adventure class teams.) Then came a rope climb up a long ramp of rock at about a 45 degree angle, and an abseil back down to the bottom.

Both the Elite ladies teams were on the ropes at the same time but it was impossible to tell how the teams compared as there were numerous time-outs during the day. Asked how she was getting on Fiona Berrow (who was on the winning team in last year’s Edinburgh Rat Race), said; “My knees are hurting so I think the orienteering stage coming up will be slow for us”. This despite the fact she was is a GB orienteer.

Back on their bikes the teams now headed West towards the coast, stopping for the orienteering at the grounds Blaise Castle House. Here they were given a detailed orienteering map with a course to complete, an abrupt change of scale from the A-Z they’d been so used to so far. Once again teams racing against each other had little idea how their ‘opposition’ was doing, and if they’d failed to find any of the checkpoints. (Some teams did have difficulty.)

The route then passed over the mouth of the Avon on a cycleway high on the M5 Motorway bridge and visited a BMX track before swinging inland again and reaching a ‘Bike and Elevate’ stage in Leigh Woods. The instruction here was “The following 3 SI boxes require team elevation or levitation.” Which meant they were high up and needed some teamwork, human pyramid style, to get to them. (All three of the team still had to dib the SI box.)

A Big Finish

From these it was a short ride via Ashton Court, back across the river to reach the final centre of activity at the Industrial Museum, which was directly across the harbour from the race village and in sight of the spectators. Approaching the museum the route book warned of a ‘railway in operation’, which turned out to be a steam locomotive and a ‘tyre hazard’, which meant the narrow railway lines set in the tarmac, but the leaders didn’t take the advice to dismount. Not this close to the finish.

Their first task was to dash inside the museum itself to find 3 checkpoints, one on a green double decker bus and another on a ship’s bell tucked away at the back of the first floor which teams had to ring. (They didn’t know it but they were on camera here as Dream Team TV, making a film for channel 4, had a small camera set up.) The third one was in a bomb shelter in a little side room off the foyer, and ‘The Drowning Rats’ who were among the leading adventure teams struggled to find this one. They looked in the more obvious bomb shelter, one of them even climbing in through the window, before figuring out the checkpoint was in a smaller shelter in the corner. (It looked more like a torpedo with a door in it!)

The area was busy with visitors on a fine Sunday afternoon, and outside the doors a crowd soon gathered to watch the final abseil from two industrial cranes. It was a long and breezy climb up numerous ladders to the cage suspended at the top, and those who had to wait got very cold. The temperature difference compared to standing below was considerable. It was a scary climb too, making a way along the crane arm, high over the harbour and trying not to look down!

Initially, it was planned for all the Elite competitors to abseil and only one from each Adventure team, but this was changed so only two Elite went down, and later on some teams had to miss out due to long queues. (Some may have been disappointed … others relieved!) While they were waiting there was time for those who’d taken some cash to enjoy a cooling ice cream … within sight of the finish!

Saab Salomon were first though with Tom Gibbs and Duncan Bruce climbing the cranes, then came the leading Adventure teams, who knew they are all very close, and a short while later SleepMonsters and Macpac Anatom arrived together, competing for 2nd and 3rd place. In turn they all raced round the harbourside, over two bridges (fortunately the swing bridge wasn’t busy!) and into the finish.

Close Contests

Saab Salomon were comfortable winners, and got so much press attention at the finish it was 7 minutes before they remembered to dib! “The whole weekend went like a dream” said Helen Jackson. “It was one of those races where nothing went wrong - no punctures and no missed controls. It was fun but testing and I’m sure it will have attracted a lot of new people to the sport.” The team plan to compete in the series and will be hard to beat, especially as they’ll be defending their win in Edinburgh last year, a city where Bruce Duncan has local knowledge on his side.

MacPac Anatom just managed to get ahead of SleepMonsters to take second place after the two teams had been in close competition all weekend, and despite their aching knees the SALTy Ladies finished ahead of Buff Endure. Both these teams have plans to race frequently this season, so expect their rivalry to be resumed again soon.

First to cross the line in the Adventure category were ‘Supperstars’, (Kevin and Duncan Honeysett & Claire Davies) who celebrated and enjoyed their moment on the finish line though they didn’t know if they’d won or not. Then they celebrated some more when the results came in – they’d won by just 10 seconds! They were delighted with their first AR win after improving from 4th overnight. “It went well all day and we knew on the second bike loop we were near the front,” and Kevin Honeysett, “then we got away on the orienteering stage, which was just enough.”

The unlucky second placed finishers were Team Quest (all from the company who organise Questars races), including David Hunt, who lives in flat overlooking the race village. “I certainly got to see places in Bristol I’d never heard of or would ever visit”, he said. “It was all great fun.”

Fun was the word most often repeated as teams came across the line, high on adrenalin after the run in and the excitement of the abseil. “That was a great race,” said Ian McNab of CotswoldOutdoor.com, “absolutely brilliant. It was so different and there were surprises all the way. Fred was grinning from ear to ear when she saw the abseil, so we had to let her go and do it! We’ll be back for more.”

Sian McKenzie of team ‘Triple S’ was new to AR, and a Rat Race convert. “I think we could do the Elite course with a bit more stamina training,” she said on the finish line. “It’s great value too. You get to have a go at all sorts of activities, shooting and abseiling would normally be very expensive and this race shirt would cost £25 in the shops, plus you get a Buff and other goodies.”

Teams finished throughout the afternoon and had time to enjoy a drink and some food in the lively atmosphere of the race village before heading home, or preparing for the race party and presentation in a nearby club later on Sunday night. The race charity Cancer Bacup was offering massage to ease aching limbs, and GWR Radio presented a bizarre selection of aspiring boy bands and girl bands on the stage to keep the crowds ‘entertained’ through the afternoon.

The female presenter did notice the race at one point, breaking off to comment, “I think they’re insane, but they look good and must be very fit, so that’s nice.”