Rat Race – Birmingham 2008

Event Site

http://www.ratraceadventure.com/

The Team

Mark Kelly, Sam Smith and myself

The Evendence

• See the pictures
• See the videos

The Race

After the adventure we had in London hopes were high for team O Face’s second Rat Race. This time we were taking on the streets of Birmingham in a new 9-5 one day race format.

The day didn’t start well; both Sam and I were feeling pretty rough. We set off early, fuelling up on peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the way to the NEC. There we met Mark and sorted out our kit before heading to the halls.

The event was being run from hall 3, one of the halls being used to host the Outdoor Show. The start and transition were located within the Rat Race exhibition space. After signing in and collecting maps and the obligatory Rat Race t-shirt we were briefed by the race organisers. As usual we’d not left enough time and Sam was reading instructions as I marked our route on a map and Mark listen in. Minutes later we were called to the start.

The first challenge was located in a plantation just outside the hall. The brief was that there had been a plane crash and we were to search for survivors, orange flags, within a 60m wreckage corridor. As we set off into the woods a camera man ran alongside me; it was still early and I’d not woken up so all I could think to say was “don’t look at me I’ve not got a clue!”. We found our bearings in the form of the Premier Inn hotel marked on the map and soon started to find flags. Each flag was marked with two letter that were to form part of a code. We had to laugh when a couple of guys, taking it all far too seriously, ran past a flag calling out the letters in a phonetic “Mike Victor”. The plantation consisted of woods, wetland and saplings, which made running difficult.  After finding all but one of the flags we opted to take the time penalty instead of continued searching.

Returning to the hall transition we collected our bikes and hit the road. Going the wrong way out of the gate we should have taken this as I sign of things to come! The map we had was very large scale and with minimal close up detail, plus in my hands it was like a price of plain white paper mapping out the arctic. Missing our first checkpoint we doubled back, to the amusement of dog walkers, but couldn’t find the dibber.

Riding through Chelmsley Wood we (I) missed an “indistinct left turn” in the river and we ended up in a field near the M6 totally bemused. Back tracking we found the trail and another team that had missed the turning. By this time it felt like we were dead last. After level pegging with this team for a while our brains engaged; we took 5 minutes to mark checkpoints on the map. Now we were knew where to expect checkpoints without having to stop. We soon caught up with other teams.

By Spaghetti junction it we’d caught up with several teams. Here a marshal presented us with a strand of spaghetti. This was to be transported, without breakage, to Brindley Place, some 5k away. I placed it inside my seat post and wedged it in place with a tissue.

Riding the Grand Union canal into the center of town was one of the highlights for me. The locks, bridges and buildings along the canal made for an interesting ride into the city. Arriving at the NIA we saw other racers kayaking from the Sea Life Center. Making our way to there we were directed to Brindley Place car park. The spaghetti made it intact, although the marshal hardly cared for our achievement! After leaving our bikes in the car park we headed for the waterside.

The kayak course consisted of a long and short course. We opted for the short to try and make up time. I raced off in a single kayak. Not sure where the turning was I asked another competitor, they instructed me to keep going. A couple of minutes later I heard Mark shout and turned to see them turning well behind where I was. The other racer had misled me, the git! I turned and raced back. Luckily I followed another team and saw where the dibber was on the bank. Racing back to the Sea Life Center I overtook a couple of teams. Expecting to round the corner to Sam and Mark laughing at me for racing off they were nowhere to be seen. 5 minutes… 10 minutes… I began to get concerned. Eventually the boys came into site. Apparently they’d missed the dibber and went round the course again.

Leaving the kayaks behind we plotted checkpoints on the inner city orienteering map. This allowed us to plan a route. Running around town we took on several challenges:

Brindley Place

Mark and I scaled a climbing wall.

The Mailbox

Inside I pushed Sam, stood on a mountain board, round a course. Sam took a bit of a tumble after performing an awesome skid stop. Unfortunately he hurt his back.

Outside I crossed the canal on the underside of a bridge. Not difficult but perhaps sending the tallest team member into the smallest space wasn’t the best idea!

Radisson Hotel

Arriving in the basement we were directed to race up 18 floors of stops to the top. This didn’t help Sam’s back and he did well getting up there.

We didn’t go for the outer checkpoints; from London we learnt that its better to save time for later challenges. After collecting the bikes we headed back to the towpaths and the grand union canal. We rode south before turning off for Birmingham City FC’s ground, St Andrews. Here we queued up for the abseiling challenge. Not quite as grand as Twickenham we found ourselves descending a stairwell in one of the stands.

Leaving the ground we headed back to the canal. Here my map reading skills failed again and we lost time getting our bearings. I passed the Map to Mark for the final part of the race. A good job that I did as navigating the tow paths is harder than you’d think. After a few miles, and a stop to help fellow races with a puncture, we arrived at The Ackers adventure and ski center. There we took on a Jungle assault course – a few logs and pieces of wire strung up just above the ground to create a challenge for middle management types on corporate days out. We didn’t even get to do the whole thing the rain had made it too slippery.

By now we were all wet, muddy and tiring but eager to take on the much hailed final challenge at Land Rover. Ackers to Land Rover was another jaunt on the Grand Union then a turn off onto roads. We arrived to be told the challenge had just closed. We begged and got let in. The challenge was to navigate course they use for the Land Rover experience. Apparently lots of mud and deep water in a car is an experience for some people – they should try it on foot! After slipping on the first hill Sam and Mark carried on, mistaking another racer for me. I was left stumbling around the course in what began to feel like another Tough Guy event.

Challenges complete we headed back to the NEC. Leaving the bikes we were directed inside the Rat Race exhibit for the final tasks. First we had to find the Fat Face stand then Mark climbed a ladder to the ceiling of the hall. The final challenge was to climb a slope covered in bananas to reach the finish line. To do this I lay on the slope as Mark and Sam climbed over me. After a couple of stumble and falls we got to the top and finished the race in 8 house and 50 minutes.

I enjoyed the race but compared to London it was lacking. I partly put this down to Birmingham being typically wet and dull but mainly to the amount of visible litter and number of drunks and gangs hanging around on the tow paths. At points it was intimidating.

Where will team O Face race next?!