The run-up to the event was filled with last minute preparation, by which we mean accessorising our kit rather than training! If we hadn't won for our physical ability, we would have surely got a prize for our gear and getting into the spirit of Rat Race. This took the form of cuddly rats attached to the top of our helmets (which after an intense testing session in a wind tunnel on the bikes showed little drag and impact on our aerodynamics!) and on top of our handlebars (leading us on our way, these fondly became known as "Rat Nav").
Rat Race started on Saturday evening with the Mean Streets, which challenged competitors to run/scurry/walk/crawl around Belfast city centre to find 24 Check Points (CPs) within a timeframe of 2hr 30mins. Locations of the CPs were issued to competitors 1 hour before the start time, with each team having to mark them on a map and decide the best route to try and collect all CPs. Different points were awarded for each CP and this list was only issued just after the official start, which meant some teams changed their route choices at the last minute to ensure they collected the highest scoring CPs.However high scores come at a price and in true Rat Race style, they come at a personal cost! The highest valued CP was 50 points, which was located at a barber shop and was the 4th CP that we visited. In order to get the 50 points one of the team had to have a handful of hair cut off (females) or a strip of hair shaved off (males). While Jen was well overdue a leg wax and tried to talk the barber into taking a strip off there, he was having none of it. Jen said to Andrea, "win or lose – on your head be it" …..so, in the name of victory (yes, even at that early stage!), Andrea offered her coiffed head and came out with one handful of hair less to carry around the rest of the course. A visit to the hairdresser is long overdue anyway!
The next highest valued CP was worth 30 points and was in a tattoo parlour, with one of the team having to decide if they were brave enough to get one done, then sign a medical form and then be ushered into a sterile back room where the tattooist was ready with electronic needles whirring and the designs laid out ready to choose. Only at the very last minute, as the needles came to within 2mm of Jen's arm, did the tattooist say that it was all a set-up. This CP was carried out to perfection, with not even the marshals knowing that it was a gag and nobody that had been brave enough to put themselves forward telling other competitors that it was a set-up. Secrecy at its best!
Obviously Andrea was keen to know what Jen had asked the tattooist to put on her arm. She said she had thought of a couple of options before deciding on "Dynamic Duo", but the guy had said that it was too long for her arm (yes, even her biceps!) and he suggested simply DD, which was what Jen went for. Bless. At the same time though, Andrea found it hilarious that Jen should be so boastful about her chest size!
Anyway, by this stage, which was about halfway through the Mean Streets, we realised that we were sweeping up the CPs at a great rate and that there would be no challenge that we would not undertake to get points. Others tasks included having to go into the Empire (about 6pm) and stand up on stage to tell a joke to the patrons; pitching a tent outside Tiso's; wolfing down a bowl of noodles at Foo kin Express; going into the Ulster Hall and drawing a picture; climbing into a high-sided inflatable box full of fairy liquid and getting back out; doing press ups; running through the water fountains at Custom House Sq; leapfrogging over bollards; and doing "keepie-uppies" at a George Best mural.
All this, while running 12-15km around the city centre. The Dynamic Duo managed to collect all the CPs, scoring the maximum 400 points and clearing the course in 1hr 40mins – well within the 2hr 30mins cut off.
So, we got home 830pm Saturday night, sorted out our gear from the Mean Streets, packed new gear for the Nine2Five on Sunday, and were back at the City Hall at 7am Sunday for the most challenging day of the event.
Again we were issued with CP references to mark on a map and a route book of the different activities we would undertake that day. Most of the day would be spent on the bikes, covering the surrounding areas of Belfast and again facing up to different challenges in a bid to collect as many points as possible. Having asked about the nature of the biking, we decided not to use the tandem this year (kindly provided by Dromara Cycling Club) and stuck with our mountain bikes.
The race started at 9am and the cut off time was 5pm (which is why it's called Nine2Five!). The first section took us out on the bikes to the Ormeau Embankment, where we got into a kayak and paddled 2km towards Stranmillis, collected a CP, and paddled the 2km back. We truly are dynamic in a kayak, or so we're told, and overtook a few teams that had got in ahead of us. Or maybe they were just distracted trying to work out did we have head-cams underneath the rats on our helmets!
From here we cycled down to Belvoir Park, where there was a memory orienteering course on foot. A navigation error at the beginning meant we had a 10min warm-up before we started! But hey, other than that the navigation was perfect all weekend!
After completing the foot course we were back on the bikes and down to Shawsbridge, where we had to canoe out on the Lagan and throw a ball into a net, and then sit in an inflatable tyre and tube down one of the fast-flowing shoots. Nicely soaked, but not looking too much like drowned rats, it was back on the bikes and on to Mary Peter's track where we had to gain maximum points we had to do a 100m sprint, jump over 3m50 in the long jump and throw over 7m50 in the shot putt. Which we did in a manner that Mary herself would have been proud!
Back on the bikes again, we were off to Lady Dixon park where there was an off-road technical biking section (not tandem-friendly!). This was the last location in the first loop and so after this we headed back to the City Hall to drop our bikes for a short while and undertake two challenges.
The first was an abseil down the inside of Victoria Square, which Jen had been looking forward to all day with her fear of heights! The fact that she struggled to get to the top of the first flight of stairs without feeling dizzy was a sure sign that this was a huge challenge, but by trusting my words to her and my confidence in her, as well as the guys at the top, she faced her fears and did the descent in style. That's my girl!
The second challenge was back at the City Hall and saw us having to change a puncture, a task that was kindly (?!) hosted by Bike Dock.
Over halfway there now and it was back on the bikes and off to Orangefield for a 3-lap blast around the velodrome. Chris Hoy eat your heart out! The route then took us down Beersbridge Nature Reserve and Comber Greenway to Dundonald Ice Bowl, where we had 6 balls to score a strike in 10-pin bowling (turned out to be our only failed CP all weekend!) and then had 6 pistol shots each to hit the bulls-eye (well, the duckling!) 3 times each for maximum point. We don't quite know what it says about us that we each hit the target in our first 3 shots. But you would be best not getting on the wrong side of us!
The bike route then took us to the Civil Service sports pavilion in the grounds of Stormont, up the hill to Stormont building itself, down the Belmont Road to a gym where we had circuit training to do and then to the finish at City Hall. We dropped our bikes and before crossing the finish line we had to help each other climb up an inflatable, down into shin-high water, and out the other side. From there we had a 20m sprint to the finish – where we knew victory was ours in the Female Pair category. We did the Nine2Five course in 5hr 18min and scored 990 out of 1,000 points.
Rat Race had it all. You know that saying, "Blood, sweat and.." ? Well, two out of three ain't bad!
Perfect race, perfect venue, perfect team, perfect weather, perfect kit, perfect accessories, perfect friendship. You can't get better than that!
Rat's all folks!
