Rat Race Weekender

Introduction to the Weekender
The Weekender sees you complete both the Mean Streets on the Saturday and the Nine2Five on the Sunday. This is the Rat Race at full-tilt.

For the full low-down, read on…

  • Event Village
  • Refresher courses
  • Registration
  • The Briefing
  • Saturday Evening: Mean Streets
  • Sunday All Day: Nine 2 Five
  • Distances
  • What you get for your money
  • Weekender timeline
  • Age Limits
  • Team composition

Event village


For all competitors, the weekend starts at the Rat Race event village built in the heart of the city. The village comes alive with music and commentary at around midday on the Saturday, allowing you and your supporters to get into the spirit of things and maybe tame some of those pre-event nerves. You can browse the adventure concessions, including purchasing any last-minute adventure racing gear from Rat Race Store, or maybe see some cool stunt-riding from our mountain bike trials team. There might be a beer tent for your supporters but for you, it might be more prudent to stock up on some carbs from the onsite caterers! Either way, come on down and enjoy the ambience and meet fellow competitors. There is a great atmosphere pre-event and this is another great facet of what makes the Rat Race so unique – racers mingling with the public in a city centre on a sunny Saturday getting ready for their urban adventure challenge!

Refresher courses  


For those of you who are doing the WEEKENDER class, you might still be a bit nervous (or rusty) on your ropes and/ or kayak skills. We lay on special refresher sessions at each Rat Race location to ensure you feel totally at ease when you reach these activities. Remember, these sessions are NOT A TOTAL SUBSTITUTE for prior experience; we ask that you have at least been in a kayak and have at least been on a rope in advance of the event. But you can pick up these skills from any good climbing wall or kayak club in your area. We have provided you info on suitable places in each city site.

Registration
One thing is for sure; there WILL be a queue. On the day, you will need to sign your acceptance of our standard terms and conditions and collect your “dibbers” (electronic timing devices – more on this later). Then on the day, you will:

1) sign your acceptance of our standard terms and conditions
2) collect your “dibbers” (electronic timing devices for adventure racing – more on this later)
3) receive your Rat Race T-shirt
4) receive your Race number
5) receive a map

This mandatory kit might be checked at Registration, or it might be checked at a random kit check out on the course. So do not cut corners with what you bring. Bring it all.

The Briefing
This is where you are given some info on what will happen in the Weekender. The Race Director will address the whole event field at this time and it’s important that everyone is there. There will be some safety information and there might be some special instructions that relate directly to that city or the way the adventure race will be run that weekend. At the end of the briefing, you will be given the Checkpoint descriptions card for the Mean Streets challenge. Together with you map, which you collected at Registration, you will now be able to mark up exactly where the Checkpoints (CPs) are on your map. Use this time well and ensure you mark them up accurately. You will be using your A-Z map for this section so familiarise yourself with these items beforehand.

Saturday Evening: Mean Streets
The Mean Streets kicks off at around 5pm and involves 2.5 hours of checkpoint hunting in the city centre by running and walking. You will have been given a map of the city at Registration and at the end of the briefing you will have also been issued your checkpoint descriptions card and have marked up your map. The Start is now upon and you will join hundreds of other adventure racerson the Start line. From here, the “course” is up to you – from the Starters’ gun, you will visit as many checkpoints as you can in a 2.5 hour period, navigating your way. Each checkpoint (CP) is awarded a different points value and the values of these CPs are the last part of the puzzle. Immediately after the start you will dart out of the Start line and grab a “give-out” sheet which has the CP values on them. Some are “activity” CPs – which means you will encounter some adrenalin, adventure or bizarre activity there. Approximately half of the CPs have activities. Go as fast or as slow as you like and enjoy the great views of the city, the camaraderie with other teams and possibly from time to time, enjoy being lost! You might experience some physical challenges, you might get wet, you might go underground, you might go into buildings, you might do some parkour, you might have to solve a mental problem and you might even have to do something fairly strange. But whatever you do and wherever you go, you will see some famous places and some hidden places. After all, it’s Saturday evening and you are on the loose in a busy city!

When the 2.5 hours period is nearly up, you must make your way back to the adventure event village to ensure you do not get back too late, as escalating points penalties will be inflicted if you are. The idea is to use team tactics, route choice and the values of the CPs to steer you around the Mean Streets and get back to Rat base with as many points as you can. The winner of the Mean Streets will have the most points. Simple as that. For adventure competitors, we will use our results ratification-izer-ation-formula to turn this points score into time and this will be added onto your time from the next day’s adventure...

 

Sunday All Day: Nine 2 Five
OK, so you have conquered the Mean Streets. Now it’s time to turn up the heat for the Rat Race Adventure course. This is where we introduce ropes, boats and bikes and much much more as you foray further into (or out of) the city and possibly further still.


It all starts on Saturday night, actually. When you are back from the Mean Streets, you get ANOTHER route material – the route book. DO NOT LOSE IT. Your team will only get one and we do not have many spares. This is your Bible for the Sunday Nine 2 Five route; just like with the CP descriptions and the give-out sheet for the Mean Streets, you will use this route book alongside your map throughout the Sunday event. But it will not guide you like a Saharan nomad; you’ll have to use it to prepare your route and plot the CPs on your map yourselves. Ensure your maps are marked up in plenty of time for the start of the event at 0900 on Sunday. From out the traps, you will have about 50km of distance to tackle. This sounds a lot and it is a challenge for sure. However, remember some key things here:

1.) Most of the distance is covered on the bikes, linking in other sections of the Nine 2 Five course

2.) You CAN miss sections out if you don’t fancy them. This relates to the foot sections especially. The Rat Race urban challenge is designed to allow this. You take a time penalty instead and continue in the race

3.) There are cut-offs, after which time you will be routed onto shorter courses. So if you fall behind for whatever reason, don’t worry we will not leave you out there when everyone else is enjoying their first beers at the party

As you know, the Rat Race adventure course is kept a secret until the weekend of the event, so we can’t tell you where you will be going or what exactly you will be doing right now. However, we CAN tell you a little about the distances involved and some key components of the event.

Distances
Approximate distances ror the full Weekender you should plan for the following distances, as a guide (if you complete the full course):

• Mean Streets - up to 10/15km run/walk
• Biking - Aprox 65 km max depending on city layout and gradients, plus loop distances, and loops completed.
• Foot on Sunday- (walking or running) 5 km (not all in one go) and to a certain degree up to you
• Kayaking - 1.5 km maximum

What you get for your money


Weekender
• Entry to the one and only Rat Race Urban Adventure
• Professionally planned adventure course
• Rat Race Special Edition Buff headwear (RRP £11.99)
• Rat Race Special Edition Race Shirt (RRP £14.99)
• Rat Race goody bag
• ALWAYS at least one exhilarating rope-work challenge
• Plastic sit-on top kayaks provided from our own fleet with all buoyancy aids and paddles supplied
• Water safety cover at all water sections
• Professional ropework instructors supervising all ropework locations; thorough pre-event risk assessment of all ropework challenges
• Maps, route-book and all route materials
• Electronic timing chips and personal results print-out (Some events like to charge you extra for these devices – we don’t!)
• Thorough pre-event risk assessment of the entire course and all health and safety criteria met
• Professional event management by adventure challenge specialists
• High value prizes
• Secure bike storage at the event village
• Event village facilities

All at £99 per person regular rate!

Weekender timeline
Here’s a guide to the times things happen on the Weekender. This might vary slightly from location to location and you should check on the city pages for info on timings at respective events. 

Saturday
• 0800 Refresher course begin
• 1000 Registration opens
• 1200 Event Village open to public
• 1500 Registration closes
• 1530 Mass briefing from the Stage
• 1700 Start of the Mean Streets event
• 1930 Finish of the Mean Streets event
• 2300 Secure bike compound locked for the night

Sunday
• 0700 Registration opens
• 0815 Registration closes
• 0830 Mass briefing to all participants
• 0900 Start
• 1200 Event Village open to public
• 1700 Course cut off time – all teams finished
• 1800 Prize-giving at the event village
• 1900 Party
• 2100 Secure bike compound to be cleared

Team composition

  • pair or
  • team of three

You can earn points towards the Rat Race Series championship if you are a MIXED TEAM OF THREE.

Age Limits
All competitors must be over 16. Those aged 16 and 17 must provide written parental/ guardian consent of their participation. Exception is made for the Youth Event in Edinburgh and London where you can be 14 years old. More info on that here.

Prize categories
• Rat Race Series prize:  3 Event UK Race Series. Only mixed teams of 3 eligible 
• Mixed Team 1st – 3rd:   Awarded per event
• Best all Male team:   Awarded per event
• Best all Female team:   Awarded per event

Enter Now!