London Has Been Rat Raced!

Rob Howard / 02.10.2007

Adventure Racing arrived in the Capital last weekend when the first ever London Rat Race set up camp beside Tower Bridge and the Mayor’s office on the South Bank, and then sent racers out to scour the city and suburbs for checkpoints and challenges.

With 750 racers taking part it was the biggest ever UK adventure race, attracting many AR newcomers and also luring back a few past racers who couldn’t resist being part of this special race.

The Mean Streets Prologue took teams out as far as Primrose Hill, into several parks, across numerous bridges, and to iconic places like the London Eye, Tower of London, Telecom Tower and the Imperial War Museum, with challenges including singing, dancing, eating jellied eels, ice climbing and parkour.

Then on Sunday, in perfect sunny weather conditions, the route began with a run over the Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge, before leading teams out of the city through Westminster and Hyde Park towards Richmond Park, Wimbledon Common, Twickenham Stadium, a jump in the Thames and some innovative challenges at Fullers Brewery. The kayaking stage was at Putney and was made all the more interesting by the high spring tides – the final racers were kayaking 20 feet higher than the first to arrive!

The finale was some ‘ship orienteering’ on HMS Belfast, and the finish line was busy for over 4 hours as teams came in, exhausted, but elated after the most unique day of London sightseeing ever! First over the line were teams The North Face and Aberdeen Asset Management, who had raced much of the way together. As a result of their Prologue performance it was Aberdeen Asset Management who won the race and the impressive series prize of a trip to Trinidad & Tobago.

A full race report and lots of photos will follow very soon and you can see the full results on the Rat Race website here.