Rat Race - Race Report (P.P.P.P.P.P)

A nice warm up event for the Royal Parks. Some short running distances with some fun little tasks thrown in and on a Saturday evening so not too warm with a good camaraderie between the competitors for good measure.

The actual truth was slightly different. It was tough. I mean really tough. I just clocked the route on runningahead.com (see it below) and as a team called 'No Hair, Don't Care', myself and eatingtrees, ran 11.53 miles. That doesn't include the balance beams, stairs, climbing over walls, ten pin bowling, karaoke ('Karma Chameleon' sung as Tenors for some bizarre reason) having my chest shaved, diving around in an inflatable ball pool and eating pizza. Add to that the fact you have to avoid getting hit by buses, taxis, bikes and run around without scaring, running into and getting in the way of members of the general public! It's not easy!!

I was expecting quite a good atmosphere with all the competitors but I have to say, it was pretty disappointing! There were a few people who nodded hello and helped with the checkpoints but there was a bit too much everyone out for themselves and taking themselves a little too seriously. I mean come on. Any event that includes some of the task listed above is meant to be fun. That's what we did as a team. Just enjoyed it as much as possible and it was good fun. Even with 20 mins left of our allotted 2h 30mins, we were still pushing each other on and giving each other all the encouragement we could. Saying that though, it was bloody wonderful to finish!

Generally it was well organised with the majority of marshals being helpful, shouting encouragement and giving clear instructions. However, it also had moments of complete farce! Firstly, no Baggage area?!?!? A start at Tower Bridge where you're encouraged not to drive and turn up from 11am for a 5pm Start but with nowhere to keep any luggage?? Pure stupidity. Surely some of the £35 fee could have gone to this. As it was, LG had to come out from home at 7pm on a saturday evening to bring some stuff for me and eatingtrees. For which, we're both very grateful! Maybe some of the sponsorship could have sorted this instead of the beer tent (before 2h:30m race), or the bungee jumping. There wasn't enough to keep people entertained for that amount of time! Mind you, maybe part of our fee went on getting a 'free pint leaflet' at one of the local pubs. Well it would if said pub hadn't been shut on Saturday night for a private function. Did someone not check this???

So Sunday morning and I ache a lot!  11.53 miles is the longest I've run since the Prague HM and wasn't the easy event I'd convinced myself it would be! It was fun and I'd do it again but I do hope a few things are thought about in the future to make it better for everyone. Rant over!