Rat Race Report

7 MARCH 2009 - CANBERRA

Of Mice and Men: a race report from the Rat Race and Mouse Chase 2009 edition

Contrary to last year, the final challenge for the Rat Race 2009 edition - a dazzling Hair Show that took place at Glebe Park at 8PM - didn’t upset the rankings of any of the top 3 teams. Team D1, D2 and T3, made up of former elite orienteer Danielle Winslow, former elite netballer Danealle Lilley and top Australian triathlete and Olympian Simon “Thomo” Thompson, had already cemented first place when they also took out the crowd-judged hair show honours. Indeed they were the obvious crowd favourite with Thomo looking like something many women in the audience would have liked to take home to have as a hallway statue and D1 and D2 looking stunning as always. Their winning score including the 200 point hair show bonus was 2,810 points. They were followed by team Pro Mac Lite (Trent Birkett, Pete Garbutt, Michael Rainbird) who were the first all male team with 2,380 points.
Earlier that day, many a male competitor crossing the finish line was seen parading in pink ladies undies in a bid to rake in some more points thanks to this bonus item on their scavenger hunt list. Local Canberra shops probably sold more pink underwear in a day than they had in the past three months and will undoubtedly have picked up on this new “fashion trend”: they will be ordering larger quantities of stock in the future!
Local team 3Fidi (Cath Peterson, Craig Maclachlan, Robert Bleeker) came in third overall and second mixed team (2,345 points) followed by Team Outdoor Australia (Kim Philip, Andrew Renwick, Sean King) only 5 points ahead of Moderately Tasting Aliens (Shane Russel, Karolina Russell, Mike Aylott) with 2,150 points who missed out on the podium after the Hair Show.
Sniffing Around (Paul Hunter, Josh Granger, Miles Barraclough) finished second male with 1,920 points and Crackerjack (Brett Sidebottom, Leon Juffermans, Phillip Pascoe-Thomas) was third with 1,610 points. Ladies in Tights, the only all female team brave enough to tackle the 12 hour Rat Race, finished with 1,050 points: well done to Karen Andrew, Jenna Brook and Nyssa Uren for going for the full experience!
The Mice finished less than 4 hours before the Rats with team Amanda Yell@ (Kevin Miller, Celina Miller, Rachel Garbutt) winning first mixed team with 1,585 points, and also receiving the Corporate Category trophy for their effort. Team 1go2slow (Richard Smyth, Kylie Jenkins, Nerida Rixon) followed them in the mixed category with 1,380 points and then the Man-ginas (Warrick Hancock, Monica Skjerve, Jason Aslimoski) came in third with 1,270 points. First in the male was Bad Old Puddy Cats (Chris Miller, Andrew Gamlen, Michael Moore) with 1,150 points, then Danger Mice (Peter Boreham, Dave Roberts, John Morton) second with 1,060 points. Third place was a very commendable performance by Canberra Grammar School team Grammar Adventure Racing 1 (Dane Broughton, Timon Howes and James Davidson) who took out the third place with 1,055 points and also took home a funky rat trophy as the top school team this year ahead of fellow students’ teams: Grammar Adventure Racing 2 and 3. The local personal training business team CrossFit Base Crew (Kylie Lindbeck, Belinder McPherson, Megan Smith) finished 40 points ahead of other all female teams Mighty Mice (Margie Fixter, Jodie Wells, Lindy Wellsmore) and It’s all about us (Belinda Chamberlain, Belinda Riding, Vanessa Carlin), both at 900 points, with the second team arriving 23 minutes before the third one.
But for most teams, it was not so much about the podium finish but rather about experiencing as many fun and quirky activities as possible: the water sliding and inflatable obstacle at Big Splash was definitely a crowd’s favourite on this beautiful Canberra day, as was the less-conventional pole-dancing class at FitSistas which saw competitors rotate their hips in style and perform the oh-so-sexy fireman routine! The more brainy teams performed well at a game of Take Two at Satis Café or filling out quizzes at Canberra Grammar School, and around the Embassy part of Canberra. The more active challenges included kayaking, foot orienteering at Yarralumla and a mountain bike rally in Majura Pines which left some teams struggling a bit as to how to follow the directions! The now-traditional Iron Gut Challenge lead to some surprising mixes like meat pie with lollies, and some spiked up concoctions including Midori, Cointreau and Rum! Friends of Mount Majura and Barnardos welcomed an influx of willing volunteers who cleaned, washed and helped out in many ways. And there was something for the artsy types too with some future Australian idols giving their best shot at Spicks n’ Specks and each team putting their painting skills (or lack thereof) at completing a patchwork artwork. The masterpiece was sold at an auction later that night with proceeds going to Hartley Lifecare, the charity partner for the event.
Hartley Lifecare is a Canberra-based charitable organisation that has provided accommodation support and respite care to children and adults in the ACT with physical and complex disabilities for more than 45 years. They manned one of the challenges and fed the hungry competitors when they were finished.