Mens Health Survival of the Fittest - Edinburgh
Edinburgh '09
Ross Hendry / 13.11.2009
In the world of urban adventure racing there's a new man about town. The Men's Health Survival of the Fittest event first appeared on the screen last year in Nottingham and has now expanded to become a tri-nation series with races in Cardiff, Nottingham and Edinburgh. It's a ten kilometre race with a bit of a twist as there are obstacles every kilometre to keep you on your toes. Or perhaps, knock you off your feet.My race buddy and I signed up for the first wave of the Edinburgh race so it was an early rise on Sunday morning to get down to Princes Street Gardens in time for registration. Suitably registered and attached to our electronic race tags we shuffled along to the bandstand for quick warm-up before heading up The Mound to the Royal Mile and the start line. As we stood waiting in the holding pen behind the inflatable arch, it occurred to me that perhaps a curry, beer and a late night weren't the best preparation for the race. We put ourselves firmly in the "survival" rather than "fittest" section of the competitors.
No time for that though as ten o'clock came and we were off, down the Mile and vaulting over a number of hay bale walls before turning into Jackson's Close, down Fleshmarket Close and along Market Street. The narrow streets did their job well and the pack was quickly spread out. Of course, after losing all that height the only way to go is up. Up to the top of Calton Hill to be precise and via the 130 steps of Jacob's Ladder. The army assault course was waiting for us at the top so we gamely scaled cargo nets, ducked and vaulted beams, swung from bars and commando crawled under more nets. All of this was thankfully much drier than Nottingham's equivalent.
In keeping with Detail Events' Rat Race series of events we were now off to enter the Urban Jungle where competitors crawled through the back windscreen of cars and through to the front. At least, some of the competitors did. My race partner decided he'd had his fill of cars in the last race and so opted for the more sedate tire run beside the cars. Since he was my team-mate it was only fitting that I followed him. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
No trip to Edinburgh would be complete without taking in the atmosphere at Arthur's Seat. We weren't going to the top today, though, we were heading for the water-slides at the foot of the crags. I had a slight pause at the top of the slide as it was apparently "a bit fast" and they wanted to try and rectify it. Couldn't see the problem myself and it certainly wasn't slow even after adjustments! If there were bonus points for clearing the end of the tarpaulin I would have been awarded double! Result!See All Event Posts
