Sheffield is Ratified
Rob Howard / 03.08.2009
There was a modest entry, but those who took the plunge enjoyed a great race, starting and finishing at Devonshire Green in the city centre, and the highlight of the weekend was the visit to the Magna Science Park in the site of an old steel works close to the M1 motorway.
Saturday's Mean Streets prologue started in pouring rain and had 24 checkpoints scattered around the city, with the usual innovative Rat Race challenges, requiring skill, physical ability and in the case of the Karoake on the City Hall stage, a bit of extrovert performance art! (Teams had to perform Amarillo.) For some of their points teams had to read a poem painted on a wall and answer questions on it later, and riding on one of the city's Supertrams earned more points. Teams were promised they'd get wet - and at the river scramble and Peace Fountain they did! At the fountain there was no escaping a drenching as the CP was right in the middle of a large volume of flying water!
Sunday's 9 to 5 race soon had teams shooting down the Ski Village slopes as they tried 'tubing', and after a visit to a BMX track it was time to visit Magna and explore the old steel works buildings and the new visitor attractions they now house.
It was a prefect urban playground for Rat Racers and in no time they were up on the roof, making their way up and down ladders and across boardwalks, before abseiling into the darkness, racing around the Earth, Air, Fire and Water attractions and popping back out by their bikes via tunnels and a manhole cover!
There were rugby and football conversions to be attempted and at the Don Valley Stadium, followed by a visit to the Rat Cave at the Accelerate Shop and then a kayaking stage on the canal, before returning to Devonshire Green. By this stage in the day the Space Hopper course was hard on the legs, and later teams could finish here if they'd had enough or run out of time, but for those with the energy left there was a sting in the tail on the steep hills on Adventure Loop 2, called 'Seb Coe's Revenge'. (It was where he Coe used to do his hill rep training.)
Quickest on the day were the local Dark Peak Team, who were the fastest Male team, while Crookes Cowboy's won the Weekender Mixed category after a close competition with Top Bananas in the Buff.
Full results will be on the Rat Race website shortly and team race reports and lots of photos will follow in the next couple of days.
SleepMonsters
