Swaledale Road Runners

Sunday 28th August saw Pauline Bennison and Julia Spittle heading for Stockton on Tees to take part in what they decsribe as the craziest 10k they've ever done – The Stockton Rat Race – described as a 'splash & dash extravaganza'. It turns out that Kenton Smith and Richie Smith are equally mad! PHOTOS ADDED BELOW.

After confirming our registration, collecting our timing chip, coloured wrist band & T shirt (why didn't we just leave then & say we'd done it??), we secured our valuables & stored our dry clothes for later. The atmosphere was very lively with plenty of spectators, loud music, food stalls, face painting & a climbing wall for the kids.

There were 870 runners in total setting off in 5 waves about 20 minutes apart. We were called for our warm up session at 11.45am & happily joined the other 150 in our group to make fools of ourselves trying to follow the exercises – still it took our minds off what was to come!

The full course can be seen on http://www.ratraceadventure.com/riverratrace but briefly we:

• Clambered under & over a series of barriers

• Crisscrossed the river on the various bridges

• Attacked an inflatable assault course

• Swam across the lock (yes the water was freezing!)

• Ran up & down the three steep sculptured mounds on the riverside

• Climbed up one side of Newport Bridge, across the top & down the other side (not normally open to the public)

• Swam across the river again near the Tees Barrage

• Did a circuit on the Tees in a two person kayak (even managed to do a 360 degree turn & bump into the jetty!)

• Walked the plank & jumped 20' into the Tees from the HMS Bark Endeavour (very scary & no choice about getting water in various orifices!!)

• Lastly we had to pull ourselves up an oiled ramp using a rope & jump 6' down onto a mat

A short walk took us to the finishing tent where we were given anti bacterial hand wash, a medal, a Snickers bar & a foil blanket. Julia came 582nd in a time of 84:24 & I was 583rd in 84:30.

Throughout the course there were 'time off' zones when queues formed when waiting to perform some activities. This registered on our timing chips & was not reflected in final run time & provided a well earned rest (never more than a few minutes).

We were warned that the water quality if the Tees is 'reasonably good' but instructed to:

• Wash our hands immediately on finishing

• Not eat, drink or smoke before washing our hands

• Get changed & have a shower as soon as we got home

• Cover up any open wounds before getting wet

• Not to drink the river water (well not on purpose anyway)

• See our GP if we felt unwell afterwards

If you've got a sense of adventure & want to do something different I would recommend it for next year (not sure if I dare 'walk the plank again' though!). We always felt safe - buoyancy aids were provided for each water based activity & there were always plenty of marshals – in and out of the water.

Pauline

STOP PRESS: Kenton Smith came 47th in 58.19 amd Richie Smith was 91st in 61.47.