AARRGGH !

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ARRGGH

Graham O\'Hanlon / 31.01.2003

Adventure Racers Rough Guide to our Glasgow Home

Organised by Christine Allen, Rob Priestly, Graham and Jacky O’Hanlon

The idea

As these things often do, it all started over a Sunday breakfast prepared to fend off encroaching hangovers ..

The previous day, Team Volunteer and associated groupies had been up to Onich to try the canyoning course enjoyed by the Fort William Salomon 36h competitors a few weeks earlier. For the full rufty-tufty AR experience, we had planned to follow this with a mountain-bike ride across Rannoch moor and up Glen Kinglass in the afternoon, followed by camping and a night in the bar of the Kingshouse hotel. However, in a slightly-less-than-hardcore manner, the persistent cold rain coupled by the relative proximity of home, meant that the camping stage was abandoned, and in around two hours we were back in Glasgow and safely installed in our local, the appropriately named Ben Nevis pub. Rob (tough-enough) Priestly was still having flash-backs to his time in the jungle, and could only be coaxed into staying by the careful application of tequila slammers.

Suffice to say that the following morning we were all in good need of copious cups of tea, and as we mulled over all things AR, the conversation turned to an urban adventure race held in Chicago. It started with, “wouldn’t it be funny if……� and ended with a tentative date set, and each of us with a list of things to do. ARRGHH was born.

The remit

We wanted to do a race that was different, embracing the possibilities of the city rather than the wilderness, and one that was tough, but equally could be completed by the less fit. We figured that the only way to achieve these conflicting demands was with a non-linear course, with a big selection of non-compulsory control points in each section. We also wanted it to be fun, and dreamt up a whole series of bizarre stages with an urban theme (sadly/fortunately most of them were cut at the design phase). For logistical and practical reasons we needed to keep it small, and we aimed for 10-12 teams. Because it was all to be done on a very unofficial basis, with minimal support out in the field, we aimed to restrict entry to people who we knew would be able to tackle such an event in a safe and sensible manner. We sent out a flier to all our contacts to gauge interest, and sure enough we got enough positive replies to make it look feasible.

Moving towards the start

In order to get firm commitments, we quickly drew up an application form and punted that out to anyone vaguely interested (and a number of folk who weren’t). We were concerned about the legal implications of describing ARRGGH as a “race�, so all documents were carefully screened, and the word was scrupulously replaced by “event�. In true Hollywood style, we had already planned our merchandising and aimed to charge a fee for the t-shirt and food rather than for the race ...err event. See All Event Posts