The Rat Race Urban Adventure
Doing Edinburgh in a Day – The Rat Race Way
Rob Howard / 20.07.2005
Barely rested after a late night marking up the course, and feeling some aches from Saturday’s pavement pounding, teams arrived at the event village early on Sunday morning to prepare for the second Edinburgh Rat Race. And as in the first, it was a steep uphill walk to the castle esplanade for the mass start at 08.00– then a quick run back down to complete a ball counting test, pick up the bikes, and set off in earnest.Another repeat from last year was the nerve racking (terrifying) ride down the long stone staircase of Warriston Close, but this year only one rider per team had to attempt the ride. Some took it fast, some came off, and a fair number ended up walking anyway. The remaining team members had other tasks.
The marshal at the top of the stairs instructed the shortest team member to go into Mary King’s Close, which is alongside the staircase. The Close was covered over and buried when the City Chambers were built on top and left undisturbed for centuries. Now it’s been reopened and the buried historic streets, complete with ghost stories and guides acting as characters from the sixteenth century, are a popular tourist attraction. Perfect for a bit of spooky underground orienteering!
Each competitor going in was given a special map with checkpoints to find in the dimly lit passages (the elite had a difficult extra one), and finding them proved tricky. One was on a table by the black coated ‘plague doctor’, who was in fact one of the staff, but he sat so still and never said anything most of the racers thought he was a model. Had he spoken they’d have jumped out of their skins! Another member of staff in period costume did scare a few passing runners as she opened a wooden door to let them through.
Andy Simpson of MacPac Smartwool was first through, but like some others after him he found a gate at the exit closed and turned back to seek another exit, so in no time there were runners going every direction. (The gate should have been opened.)
SleepMonsters felt a bit aggrieved by the arbitrary edict that the shortest team member should go in, as this was Jen Brown, their least capable orienteer, whereas Simpson was MacPac Smartwool’s best!See All Event Posts
