Rat Racing 2009 – Back to Bristol and Edinburgh

Rob Howard / 12.06.2009

Rat Racing for this year gets underway soon with the first event in Bristol over the weekend of June 27/28th, quickly followed by the Edinburgh race over the weekend of July 18/19th

It's a return to its roots for Rat Racing. Edinburgh was the original venue when the first ever Rat Race took place there on July 17th 2004, starting from an impressive base below the Castle in West Princess Street Gardens, a venue which has been used every year since and will once again host the adventure village this July.

In 2005 Bristol was added as the second Rat Race venue with the adventure village on the redeveloped harbour waterfront providing a very different venue, which has now been replaced with Castle Park right in the city centre (regular competitors take note!).

From there the concept has gone from strength to strength, with events all around the UK and Ireland, and even as far away as Australia. The series is still taking the unique Rat Race style of racing and fun to new venues and new competitors but Edinburgh and Bristol are now so well established they hold a special attraction for many Rat Racers.

In previous Edinburgh Rat Races the activities have included kayaking under the Forth Rail and Road bridges, an abseil from the top of Nelson's monument on Calton Hill, a roof-top bike obstacle course at Ocean Terminal and bone-shaking cycle rides down the massive flights of steps of the 'wynds' in the old town. In Bristol racers have abseiled off dock side cranes and tower blocks, tried cave orienteering and paddled through the busy docks.

This year there is a new planner for Bristol, former competitor Gary Vallance is promising a very urban Mean Streets prologue on Saturday, using some city areas not ventured into before, and for the Nine to Five racers on Sunday "cycling to memorable heights and plunging 'in'to some extraordinary depths at cutting edge locations, a dash of greenery, a furry friend or two ... and of course, plenty of water." Weekender racers get to do both of course.

You can find out more about these and other Rat Races, enter, book training, hire gear and browse the Rat Race Store at www.ratraceadventure.com