July 08

The Rat Race goes Outward Bound with a new youth event

The Rat Race, a team-based urban adventure sport challenge that transforms cities into giant adventure playgrounds, has announced its first youth event, which is to be run as part of the London Rat Race on 27th and 28th September this year. In partnership with The Outward Bound Trust, the UK’s leading provider of experiential learning in the outdoors, the Rat Race will give 14 – 18 year olds the opportunity to take part in an amazing adventure across London as teams of competitors run, bike, climb, kayak, abseil and navigate their way around a secret course that is revealed only hours before they begin. The unique and quirky event is part physical and part mental challenge and is open to teams of three of all abilities, resulting in an incredibly eclectic group of participants who make it to the start line.

The Rat Race was started in Edinburgh in 2004 and has since spread to cover adventures in Bristol, Birmingham, Belfast, Newcastle and London with the first international event taking place in Melbourne in November 2008. The event is designed to offer a unique and exciting adventure in an urban space with the emphasis firmly on fun. The youth event will feature all the action of the full Rat Race course, with some shortened sections. It will be heavy on the action and is designed to be achievable with a little training and a lot of guts! Although the course is kept a closely guarded secret until the eve of the event, the Rat Race planners have been hard at work finding the very best the city has to offer for the first outing of The Outward Bound Trust youth class.

Rat Race Creator Jim Mee explains: “London simply is the World’s greatest city. It offers so many opportunities for us with this event. With an abundance of famous places, hidden gems, large and stately buildings, exciting urban developments, huge parks and living history everywhere, the first youth event in London will reveal so many different facets of the city and will truly take the participants on a road less travelled through this giant metropolis. London is surprisingly green for such a massive urban area and all over town, we are finding really quirky challenge locations to test the competitors. This is an exciting event to plan, which means it will be even more exciting to take part in!”

Laura Watson, Event Coordinator of The Outward Bound Trust, said: “We are so excited to be able to team up with the Rat Race to put on the Youth Class for the 2008 London Race. It will give young people the chance to use the skills that they have learnt on an Outward Bound® course, skills such as rope work, navigational work and most importantly team work, confidence and communication. The Rat Race will provide the ultimate challenge for young people and keep them exploring and learning about the outdoors.”

The event will start and finish in the shadow of mighty Tower Bridge and an event village will be built for supporters and members of the public featuring adventure activities, live music, action sports demonstrations and refreshment stalls.

Entry for the London Youth Rat race is offered at a rate of £99 per person. Each team of three must include an adult over 19 years old as a legal guardian. Entry includes special skills induction training on the Saturday morning of the event and use of all specialist equipment, however participants must have a bicycle. Entries close on 21st September 2008. Full entry details, training tips and full event information can be found at www.ratraceadventure.com

For more information on the event visit
www.ratraceadventure.com or telephone the Rat Race office on 0845 0094365.

ENDS

For more information please contact:
Jim Mee (Rat Race) on 07790 900354 or Laura Watson (The Outward Bound Trust) on 07725 372712

Notes To Editors:

Rat Race Urban Adventure                         www.ratraceadventure.com
The London event is the finale of the Rat Race 2008 Series that includes events in:

Birmingham    15th March 2008
Bristol              14th/ 15Th June 2008
Brighton           28th June
Edinburgh        18th/ 19th July 2008
Belfast             9th August
Newcastle       30th August 2008
London            28th/ 29th Sep 2008

The Outward Bound Trust

The Outward Bound Trust is an educational charity that uses outdoor experiences and challenges to help and develop young people and provides the inspiration for thousands of young people every year to unlock their potential, raise their self-esteem and prepare them to face their future with confidence.

Charitable donations support youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom this experience is truly life changing. An Outward Bound® course at one of our four residential centres (Aberdovey in Wales, Ullswater and Howtown in the Lake District and Loch Eil in Scotland), helps young people learn the value of self-reliance, compassion, respect for others and the environment, and equips them with positive values to support them throughout their lives.  It also gives them a taste of frontier adventure and the outdoors that they might otherwise never experience.
 
The Outward Bound Trust was founded over 65 years ago. Since then the term has become synonymous with adventure, learning and personal development for young people, but there is only one Outward Bound®. With an enviable safety record, we are the original and leading facilitator of experiential learning in the outdoors.

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