Concrete Playground: London Rat Race

News — By Outdoor Adventure Guide on April 29, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Can London’s Rat Race be run without working up an unattractive sweat?

Acres of top-en running gear and toned muscles greeted the eye

Acres of top-end running gear and toned muscles greeted the eye

An OAG team took part in the London Rat Race last autumn, one of a series of urban adventure races. When we say ‘took part’, we only did the Saturday evening ‘Mean Streets’ session – a few hours of running around with a map, looking for checkpoints and doing challenges. And when we say ‘running’… well, it’s supposed to be the lighthearted end of the weekend, while Sunday involves eight hours of cycling, running, abseiling, kayaking etc, but frankly we knew we’d gauged it wrong when we turned up in our jeans with Tracker bars in the pockets. Oh well, it was great fun, and next year we’ll be there at the starting line in full running gear. And maybe on time too…

‘We knew we’d gauged it wrong when we turned up in our jeans with Tracker bars’

This year they’ll be held in Birmingham (30/31 May), Brighton (13/14 June), Bristol (27/28 June), Edinburgh (18/19 July), Sheffield (25/26 July), Belfast (8/9 Aug), Gateshead/Newcastle(29/30 Aug), Galway (5/6 Sept) and London (26/27 Sept). It’s £35 for Saturday’s Mean Streets, £69 for Sunday’s Nine2Five event and £99 for both.
www.ratraceadventure.com