Day 1
Rat Race 2009 certainly put on a fantastic show.
Starting at 4pm Saturday afternoon, we were handed our maps and clue sheets and planned our attack of retrieving as many of the 33 checkpoints we could between the hours of 5pm & 8pm.
The starting gun went off before we knew it and 150 people started running down Harbour Esplanade and around the Docklands. My team mates (Sally & Fe) and I went to the footy challenge first where Sal was a star and scored an easy two goals. A quick climb up the rock tower in the new Anaconda store in South Wharf and we found ourselves running into the heart of the city. The rain started pouring and our next check point of ‘finding the rat’ turned into finding a 'drowned rat'. Some checkpoints in the city were only available during certain times within the three hour period, and our strategic planning at the start of of race saw us successfully retrieving many of them. Heading north to the City Baths we expected that at least one of our team would have to get wet at this checkpoint, but as they told us that all three of us had to go for a dip, we were a little suprised. Jumping in almost fully clothed, it didn’t matter too much as running to our next checkpoint was done in the pouring rain and you wouldn’t have even known we had been in a pool.
Back towards the Docklands we had to be at the “Say Cheese” checkpoint between 7.15 – 7.17. Having a group photo taken earned us 100 points and we ran back to Waterfront City to get as many of the remaining checkpoints we could in the final 30 mins. Eating a spicy pizza, tightrope walking, a bit of ice skating and pushing a 4WD car around a rooftop car park filled up the final time.
Checking in our time card at 8pm, we were told that we achieved a total of 850 points out of a possible 1050, putting us in FIRST PLACE in the womens teams (and 9th overall).
Before we left for the night, we received our maps and instruction booklet for the following day. It was going to be a long night studying the info and picking our route, but I knew it was going to be worthwhile.
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Tips for Climbing into this Adventure:
- take your time in the planning stage - read instructions very carefully as you can easily miss things when you are out running
- clearly communicate to both team mates directions and ideas
- know your team mates strengths and weaknesses. Work together to ensure everyone has a great time
