Rat Race Mean Streets

Introduction to the Mean Streets

Entering the Mean Streets you are getting the flavour of the Rat Race Adventure! Enjoy 2.5 hours of checkpoint and activity hunting on a Saturday night in the heart of these awesome cities. Or if you are up for the full bhoona, then sign up for the Weekender, where you will compete in the Mean Streets, rest up for the night and then attack the Nine 2 Five course too, with ropes, boats and bikes! Completion of both allows you to claim victory over the Rat Race Weekender! For pricing info on all formats, click here. For the full low-down on the Mean Streets adventure race, read on...  

• Mean Streets - what is it all about?
• Event Village
• Registration
• The Briefing
• Core components on Saturday
• What you get for your money
• Mean Streets Timeline
• Team composition
• Age Limits
• Prize Categories

Mean Streets - what is it all about?

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 racers on 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 Weekender participants, we will carry-over your results into the Sunday Nine2Five event.

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 race 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 with energy boosting smoothies or 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!

Registration

One thing is for sure; there WILL be a queue to register for this event. You can fill out the medical questionnaire pre-event by printing the form (below). 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)
3) receive your Rat Race goody bag
4) receive your Rat Race T-hirt
5) receive your Race number
6) receive a map

By filling in the Medical questionnaire and Event Disclaimer pre-event, you will save time as there will be one less queue to stand in. The 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 Mean Streets; but not all the info. 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.

What you get for your money

Mean Street
• Entry to the one and only Rat Race Urban Adventure
• Professionally planned course
• Rat Race Special Edition Buff headwear (RRP £11.99)
• Rat Race Special Edition Race Shirt (RRP £19.99)
• Rat Race goody bag
• 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
• High value prizes
• Event village entertainment

All at £35 per person regular rate!

Mean Streets Timeline

Saturday
• 1000 Registration opens
• 1200 Entertainment Acts Stage programme begins in the event village
• 1500 Registration closes
• 1530 Mass briefing from the Stage
• 1700 Start of the Mean Streets event
• 1930  Finish of the Mean Streets event

Team composition

Teams in the Rat Race Adventure can enter as a pair or team of 3, whether competing in the Mean Streets event and/or the Sunday Nine2Five event. Your team CAN be single sex and there is no problem with this - we have many single sex teams take part. BUT please bear in mind in these cases you will not be eligible for the overall Rat Race Series prize, so if you are racing to WIN, you cannot do so as a single sex team. We do however acknowledge these categories though.

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 aged 14 years old. More info on that here.
 
Prize categories
• Best mixed team: Awarded per event
• Best male team: Awarded per event
• Best female team: Awarded per event
• Best mixed pair: Awarded per event
• Best male pair: Awarded per event
• Beast female pair: Awarded per event