Deuter Rat Race

About a month ago I was lucky enough to be invited by some Questacon friends to compete in a 12 hour Rat Race. A Rat Race is a funny thing. Its a bit like a metrogaine - there are a variety of checkpoints around town and you have a time limit (12 hours) to get to as many as possible. Each of the checkpoints are worth a different amount of points and you can do them in any order. You are also allowed - and it is the preferred method of transport - to ride bikes between checkpoints. My downfall is that my bike is worth less than my helmet. (I apologise, these phots came from the website - I didn't have time to take photos)

Orienteering through Mt Ainslie

The difference between a Rat Race and a metrogaine is that in a metrogaine when you get to a checkpoint you get your points straight away. In a Rat Race you have to perform some sort of -usually silly - activity.

Iron gut Comp: Combine any four ingredients that start with the letters g, b, w, r, or s. We used fruit, it was super tasty

It took up a whole Saturday but was immensly fun. We started by doing an orienteering course through Mount Ainslie where my in depth knowledge of the area made the map nearly obsolete. We then went to town to purchase ingredients for the iron gut competition before heading to the Gym for an hour long session worth 100 points.

An hour long session at the Gym. Every Class was booked out. We managed to sneak into the stretching class

Following that we made our north, visiting checkpoints were we had to prepare food for a salsa, play a word game called take two, climb at Mitchell's Indoor mountain climbing centre among other fun actvities.

Take Two at a Cafe in Watson

Following that we took our bikes to the dirt tracks and bike orienteering section in the Bruce Nature Reserve. Here it became glaringly apparent how dilapitated and cheap my bike is. I crashed at least six times, punctured my tube once, and crushed my groin more times than I care to remember. Beaten and bruised I wobbled out of the course with my team mates laughing at me. To recover we went to prune some plants for 80 points.

The mountain bike challenge proved how inadequete my bike really is. I never looked like this guy in the photo. First replace the smile with a look of abject terror...

Pruning plants gave me some time to recuperate
Next on the agenda was kiaking around lake Burley Griffin. Once we got into a rhythm it was quite relaxing, but my chest and arms received a workout not to be matched (until Fenner rugby 2008 no doubt). This was followed by another oreinteering course through the ANU - every checkpoint was a crossword clue and you receive points by filling in a crossword. Luckily for our team I've been a worked as Security at ANU for four years and know the campus back to front. I'm also a crossword enthusiast. As such we had one of the highest scores for this challenge.

Kiaking was hard at first, but gets easier as you settle into a rhythm

We returned 11 hours and 43 minutes later with 1905 points - a respectable 15th place. It was a great day and fun to out with some Questacon people again.