The Rat Race EDINBURGH Urban Adventure Race
Sea to Summit in Edinburgh
Rob Howard / 20.07.2007
Prince’s Street Gardens was eerily quiet on Sunday morning as the first Rat Racers arrived to prepare for the long day of action ahead of them. After a briefing they gathered on the start line by the ornate fountain below Edinburgh castle and Gary Tompsett gave them a 5 second countdown before they followed Gill Watson on a run around the gardens.This was designed to spread them out a little, as was the first activity, which involved splitting up to find sections of an aerial orienteering map of nearby Newtown. Once these were pieced together teams set off to find the controls, which had been cunningly valued and placed around the circular Royal Crescent and Moray Place to cause confusion. With Team The North Face the cunning plan worked. “I was just totally disoriented�, said Anthony Emmet, “it was only when we found CP6 by accident I knew where we were!�
They were soon passing teams however, as everyone picked up their bikes and rode up through the city streets and then back downhill via two long flights of steps, an intimidating challenge which not everyone took on. Not that it fazed Mark Chryssanthou of The North Face who shot down both at full speed, going so fast he flew over the bottom dozen steps!
One first time racer who successfully had a go was Joby Ogwen, one of the USA’s top mountaineers. (He is the youngest U.S. climber to summit Everest and holds the speed ascent record for an 8000m peak at 8 hours.) Joby was in Edinburgh to be filmed for National Geographic as part of a series following him trying different adrenalin sports, and he’d been teamed up with Iona Robertson and Andy Simpson, who he’d only just met. He had however, had a week in Edinburgh and a chance to do some preparation, including step-riding lessons with John Laughlin, and they paid off as he was filmed safely riding down the steps.See All Event Posts
