The Rat Race SHEFFIELD Urban Adventure Race
Top Bananas in Sheffield
Marty Lee (Team Top Bananas) / 06.08.2009
After the damp weather in Edinburgh, the Rat Race in Sheffield continued with the slightly moist theme, but ended in glorious sunshine right in the heart of the city. As rats, the course planners made sure that we would get wet to earn our points; very wet indeed. We were also promised a tour of the historical side of the Steel City in the 'Magna' Science Adventure Centre, along with mandatory head torches for the whole team. Rats love dark and confined spaces! Race planner Shane Ohly didn't disappoint with the Saturday night Mean Streets course, although it covered notably less area than the previous Edinburgh or Bristol races, some of the challenges were more time consuming, wet or needed some lateral thinking to complete efficiently. The damp evening didn't make much difference to the state of the racers, with a swimming pool challenge, fountain dash and a walk up a river ensuring we would never stay dry for very long.
Karaoke on the stage of the town hall and break dancing in one of the local clubs providing more entertainment for staff and marshals than the majority of racers I suspect. The notable exceptions being Jim Mee 'throwing shapes' with his break dancing prowess; a hidden talent!
With the Peak District right on the doorstep, climbing is a local pastime for many, so the check point in the local 'Foundry' climbing centre was not really a huge shock. Less so the 'tree climbing' check point; wet trainers and wet slippy tree bark meaning team work was required to get aloft and into the tree, followed by a precarious exit from said natural obstacle.
With three teams clearing the course in under two hours and a further 5 clearing it within the 2 and a half limit, it quickly became apparent that there were some good racers in town and there was going to be a number in contention for the weekender prizes.
Sunday started much brighter, so it would have been a relatively safe bet to leave full waterproofs behind. With mandatory kit including them and head-torches for certain activities however, packs were heavier than would be expected.
The starburst activity to spread the teams up was a mini-orienteering challenge in a nearby group of houses - interlinked by small paths and irregular road patterns. Our good result on Saturday night was really tested by some early mistakes, putting us back into the middle of the pack leaving the centre. We needed to settle and regain our efficiency.
Leaving the event centre, we climbed up to the 'Ski Village' dry slopes, taking the opportunity to pass some of the slower teams and try to get back into contention with the leaders. At the ski slope, we proceeded to hurtle down the slope in rubber rings - slow to start but they quickly accelerated once they hit the parts of the slope that had the sprinklers on. Oh, and no brakes! At some points I'm sure it looked more like dodgems than a race. See All Event Posts
