Edinburgh Rat Race 2008
The Edinburgh Rat Race is a crazy 2-day race around the city where participants have to perform various bizarre tasks and stop off at designated checkpoints before they cross the finish line. It's an adventure which takes sports right into the streets, waterways and urban jungles of Britain's coolest cities. This year, it's happening on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July.
Hundreds of participants form teams of 3 and race around the city running, climbing, mountain biking and abseiling as they tackle a course that's revealed to them only hours before they begin. It's a test of endurance, navigation, skills and guts.
The Rat Race started in 2004 in Edinburgh, and since then, Rat Races have spread to Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and London. Every year at the Edinburgh Rat Race, an 'Event Village' is set up in Princes Street Gardens. This is the nerve centre of the race where you'll find pre-race training, advice clinics, shops, urban sports and public entertainment (for those who just aren't up to the challenge).
The Rat Race adventure begins on a Saturday morning with registration and briefing, then you'll have all day to relax in the Event Village or practise your climbing, abseiling, or any other skills you think might come in handy!
On Saturday night, it's the 'Mean Streets' prologue, where the teams hit the streets, navigating their own routes to as many strange checkpoints as possible in 3 hours. In 2007, racers found themselves at the hairdressers for all sorts of crazy cuts, 'enjoying' deep fried chocolate bars, boxing, chasing a bride, shooting hoops and scrambling round in bushes.
The race continues on Sunday morning with at least 6 hours of adventure - on bike, foot, kayak, rope and various other forms of transport - to reach all the remaining checkpoints.
The route is only revealed to the teams in the morning, and it's not always simple - last year, teams first had to put together a puzzle, which then revealed the route. And at the end of a gruelling day of adventure activities, racers had to hold their nerve and steady their aching arms to shoot some basketball hoops in front of a packed Ross Theatre before being allowed to cross the finish line.
Anyone can apply to join the Edinburgh Rat Race and it's an amazing way to see city. The race is open to anyone over 18, but if you want to be in with a chance of winning you'd better be fit - it took last year's winning team a whopping 9 hours to complete Sunday's course. Registration forms are available on the website.
For more information on the Edinburgh Rat Race and other races, visit The Rat Race (www.ratraceadventure.com/).