Independent Networks Adrenalin Rush

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Closure

Rob / 02.06.2003

Adrenalin Rush drew to riotous close at the after race party, prize giving and civic reception at the Bught Sports Centre. The North Face, dressed in colourful Hawaiian shirts, and fresh from a day trip to see the mountain biking world cup, collected their impressive trophy. This was a huge, engraved, silver sword which Chris McSweeny waved above his head. (He had a big grin on his face but those around him looked a bit worried!) They won a silver quaich each too, as did the second and third placed teams. These are a Scottish cup of friendship and were christened in the traditional way with a sip of highland malt as the top 3 teams raised them in a toast to the race.

There were a couple of other special prizes on the night too, Rob Finlay got the ‘Flatulence award’, and in an expedition race that takes some doing as there is plenty of competition! He was presented with a supersize tin of beans! Ruth Martin was also given a big toy rescue helicopter to mark her dramatic departure from the race.

SleepMonsters.com won the ‘Spirit of the Race Award’ for reaching out to ‘Out There’ when they were in trouble in the loch swim and pulling them across. They collected a silver flask, full of Scottish spirit, and John Cunningham put in the most outrageous podium appearance. (I won’t inflict the picture of the pink leotard and stripy tights on you.) What the civic dignitaries of Inverness made of the wild bunch they were hosting I’m not sure. Minutes later the male members of Team One, all in drag, were dancing around a handbag ...

One of the great things about Adrenalin Rush is that everyone is in one place in the Vango tented village so there was plenty of time to swap stories and find out what everyone else had been up to during the race. It wasn’t all smooth running for the winners as you might perhaps imagine, Ski Sharp admitted to being ‘completely out of it’ for nearly 24 hours as a result of dehydration, and on another occasion he had to flag down Brian Elliot’s helicopter to tell him an unmanned PC clipper was missing. (It had been stolen and another one was put in place before the next team arrived.) It was around here a Golden Eagle dived on the helicopter, perhaps as it was nesting near by. [Any racers and volunteers who want to pass on a short story from the race can put them in the Adrenalin Rush forum if want to.]

With 16 finishers from 25 starters the race had the highest finish rate of any Rush so far, helped by the weather, which wasn’t perfect but might have been a whole lot worse. It didn’t rain much and a strong head wind on Loch Ness would have cut the finish rate for sure. British teams are also getting more experienced and are better equipped to tackle the race, and once again a ‘home’ team came out on top against strong international competition, who found out the description ‘Europe’s Toughest Race’ isn’t hype, it’s true.See All Event Posts