RatRace returns to Galway

GALWAY SET FOR RODENT INFESTATION AS RAT RACE
RETURNS IN 2009

Galway City is preparing to be infested with adventure racers as the ‘Rat Race’ returns to the city in 2009. The team-based event will see the city transformed into an urban sports playground as racers are challenged to take part in a range of physical and mental activities including running, mountain biking, abseiling, climbing and kayaking.

The Galway event, which takes place over a weekend this year, on 5th and 6th September 2009, will be the penultimate race of a 9-date UK and Ireland summer series that will also take in Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Gateshead/Newcastle, London, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Saturday’s “Mean Streets” is billed as ‘the team running event with bite’. It is designed predominantly as a running (or walking) event and is open to competitors of all abilities. Participants will have 3 hours to hunt for up to 25 checkpoints hidden all over the city centre. Sunday is a bike-based adventure that takes teams further out towards the city limits and encompasses more overt adventure pursuit, such as kayaking, abseiling and navigation.

In the inaugural 2008 Galway City Rat Race the activities included abseiling inside Eyre Square Shopping centre, kayaking on the River Corrib, clambering through mud and trees blind-folded in Barna woods and jumping off the Blackrock diving boards on Salthill promenade.

This year’s races will start and finish in a specially constructed adventure village in the heart of the city, in Eyre Square. The event village features well-earned food and drink for competitors and spectators alike, alongside live music plus adventure exhibits and activities for the public to try their hand at.

Jim Mee, MD of event organisers Detail Events commenting on Galway City’s suitability to hold the event said; “Galway has the perfect infrastructure to hold a Rat Race. As well as a number of unusual spots and iconic locations, Galway is a very green city with plenty of parks. Of course there is plenty of water too, which is great for this sort of activity. Our planners are already working on the course and it will be significantly different to last year so anyone who took part in last year’s race shouldn’t think that they know what to expect!”

Commenting on the announcement of the return of Rat Race, Brian Quinn, Product Market & Development Manager, Failte Ireland West, said “Adventure racing is widely reported to be one of the fastest growing sports in the world and we at Failte Ireland West are very keen to tap into the full potential of the Adventure Holidays market. This event will attract more International T.V and press coverage, further promoting the West of Ireland as an outdoor sports destination, placing the region in a strategically important position as Ireland’s adventure playground”.

He continued: “Outdoor and Adventure events such as this are paramount to Failte Ireland West’s commitment to developing the region as the primary outdoor destination in Ireland.”

Contact details:
www.ratraceadventure.com
00353 98 28324 or email ireland@ratraceadventure.com