London Calling all Rat Racers

Rob Howard / 01.06.2007

As Detail Events slug it out in the wild weather at the Adventure Racing World Championships, another extremely audacious event is being unveiled by them – in a totally different location and a long way from the lochs and mountains of the Scottish Highlands.

The eagerly-anticipated London Rat Race will take place on 29/ 30 September and the event will open for entries on 01 June (that’s today!). It promises to be quite a show. The Rat pack have so far been in consultation with 10 different London Boroughs, the Mayor’s Office, the Royal Parks and other organisations and for the 1000 expected racers, at least 1000 different permissions will be granted by differing organisations to run this event.

This is an extremely daring project and for those that take up one of the offered 1000 places, there is bound to be an amazing experience in store for them. It’s also a defining moment for AR – London is a huge city and the opportunity to enter it and run an adventure race within its bounds is unprecedented.

With the event village being built next to Tower Bridge, the course could easily go north, south, east or west across the Capital and in true Rat Race style, it is sure to pack some surprises along the way. Disciplines confirmed include mountain and road biking, kayaking, navigation outdoors AND indoors (!), parkour, rope-work and special stages, including the usual eclectic mixture of checkpoints in all manner of interesting and quirky locations.

Jim Mee, creator of the Rat Race comments:

“Rat Race London peels the concept right back to what the event is all about – exploring your city (or visiting someone else’s) in a manner that is totally unique and seeing it from a totally different perspective. There is an awesome adventure in store for those who come on the journey through London with us; we have found the very best of what lies beneath the surface of the beating heart of the capital.

“It’s our hometown too – who knows, maybe there will even be a checkpoint in our office. That would be handy! We have been waiting for the right time to do an event in London and with the support of the authorities and Visit London, the tourist board here, we have established a really firm base for getting the very best adventure possible from the city. London is the greatest city on Earth and this event will have a scale truly befitting of its stature.”

Racing around a metropolis the size of London may not seem like everyone’s cup of tea, but the Rat Race is all about using the built and urban environment to race in, over, under and through – and in London there is bags of scope for adventure. The city is often cited for its abundance of parks; the River Thames, canal systems and huge docks offer a plethora of water-borne options and the exciting mixture of old and new architecture in the city is sure to be utilised by the organisers who pride themselves in innovative uses of city spaces for adventure racing!”