I know those Rats!
Written by Fiona Outdoors
July 21 2009
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Picking up the press release about this weekend’s Edinburgh Rat Race I was very excited to see that two friends from the Glasgow Tri Club were in the winning team. Iona Robertson and her partner Rich Wild plus a friend Clive Parry beat off more than other 500 competitors to win the notoriously bonkers and gruelling event.
When you know Iona and Rich I don’t suppose it should be so surprising to find them victorious in such a challenging race – but it’s still really good to know that I sometimes hang out with such great athletes. Ok, well, they’re usually running somewhere miles ahead of me at track training sessions but I do occasionally get to chat with them before and after the sessions.
Fantastic effort guys. Here’s the race report.
After a gruelling race spanning 85km over two days, team Helly Hansen – Nuun won the 2009 Edinburgh Rat Race.
The team, comprising Iona Robertson, Richard Wild and Clive Parry joined 552 competitors in Edinburgh racing over two days (Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July) for the sixth Edinburgh Rat Race, the flagship of the seven event Rat Race Urban Adventure Series.
Following the madcap event Iona said: ‘We’re all really pleased to have won the Rat Race in Edinburgh since the competition was as high as ever. It was a tough couple of days; pretty hard work but on a great course mixed in with some pretty obscure checkpoint challenges’.
The Edinburgh Rat Race is a multi-disciplined team challenge of navigation, endurance, mental agility, running, climbing, mountain biking, kayaking and abseiling, combined with surreal sporting tests and obstacles at different checkpoints across some of the city’s most challenging terrain. Team Helly Hansen – Nuun covered the 65km course of Sunday’s Nine2Five race in 05:51:41, more than 15 minutes ahead of second placed team Average Joe in a Buff, who crossed the finish line 45 minutes ahead of third placed Team Nopesport THB.