Rat Race offers everyday people the chance to explore once in a lifetime, bucket list locations.
As an innovator who plied his trade starting out in marketing with Red Bull, Jim Mee says “you won’t find us going up Mount Kilimanjaro” with his company Rat Race Adventures.
“It’s a fantastic trek but we can’t really innovate on things that are well established,” says the founder of the UK’s largest provider of global adventure challenges.
Based out of York, Rat Race has hosted over 500 UK and international events in 20 countries since launching in 2004. “Every single one of our events is unique to us and our bucket lists are a bespoke journey,” he adds.
These "bucket list" locations include a 100-mile journey across a frozen lake in Outer Mongolia to the Panama Coast to Coast challenge, billed as tougher than the fabled Marathon Des Sables.
When we speak, Mee is set to fly back from a trip to Guatemala, where Rat Race has set up a sea to summit cycle and walking adventure in a seldom visited part of the country on the Mexican border. “We have blazed a trail that hasn’t been used,” says Mee. “Nobody goes up the side of the mountain we go up.”
Mee’s love of the outdoors began with hikes with his parents. His father used to be in the air force and he recalls how they used to seek out plane wrecks in the Peak District.
Jim and Dannii Mee met when the latter applied for a job at Rat Race in 2012 and she is now commercial director.
When he joined Red Bull in the marketing division, Mee moved to Scotland. He then moved to Chamonix after leaving his job and taking a year out. Mee ran out of money but was keen to climb more mountains, harbouring ambition to start a business and using his outdoor nous to set up an events company.
His first was an urban adventure city race in Edinburgh, which featured mountain biking down stairs and abseiling off buildings. He secured a TV deal with Channel 4 and found an event sponsor.
“I dug in and for 10 years all I did was work, but I didn’t quite get the balance right,” he admits. “I left adventure behind while I ran this adventure company.
Mee had joined Red Bull early in the energy drink's growth when only six people worked on the brand in the UK. When he left three years later, there were 200. “It taught me how to spend money, not make it,” he smiles.
Rat Race is the UK’s largest provider of global adventure challenges.
“It was fantastic and almost like a cult, with some enthusiastic young go-getters. There were absolute rules, but no rules. It was a very exciting time to be part of something that was rocketing.”
Despite Red Bull’s cast iron brand guidelines, there was a blank canvas. “That was hugely liberating,” he adds. “That taught me the art of can-do and being able to deliver. It gave me audacity in terms of concept.”
“What it didn’t teach me was budget. It didn’t matter how much it cost to run an event as long as it was good. It was a wake up call when I went my way.”
For the first 15 years, Rat Race organised mass obstacle races (almost like orienteering) but without the “suffer fest” bravado seen at events such as Tough Mudder.
In 2010, obstacle events boomed and Rat Race teamed up with Men’s Health in a joint adventure with 18,000 people running around Battersea Power Station. “Our events were far less gung-ho to what was going on in the market,” says Mee.
Rat Race later took the decision not to time their events, instead aiming the challenge factor towards the customers. Mee believes the change of direction defined his company as one being more accessible.
Now, Rat Race has a bucket list series in over 40 countries. From concept to running the event for the first time takes around three years of planning.
The UK-based firm's unique trips include a toe to tip traverse of Dominica’s entire nature island.
The majority of their consumer is 85% British, although Mee is seeing more demand from an international audience which includes a growing number of Dutch enthusiasts signing up for the firm's Scottish events.
Their mailing list spans over 150,000 as Rat Race enters its 21st year, coupled with turnover of £4m. But like many travel businesses, Rat Race faced going out of business during COVID, before pivoting to focus on its international adventures.
It led to Rat Race installing a Glastonbury-style, wait-list system for its last-ever Dirty Weekend obstacle course event in 2022.
The demographic of Rat Race’s events, says Mee, has evolved with his own after starting the business aged 25 and now in his mid 40s.
“It shows the market has matured in the number of people looking to do adventure as well as the age,” he says.
Rat Race Adventure events are not timed, unlike other gruelling offerings in the market.
“We’re not standing still. We have to keep innovating and our repeat customers are always asking ‘where next?’
“It’s a bit of a play off between innovation and new event concepts and making sure the occupancy is high enough to make a profit.”
He met his wife, Dannii, when she applied for a job at Rat Race 12 years ago. They have since travelled the world together on their own personal bucket list as a husband-and-wife team.
They shared their first kiss at Loch Ness in a rowing boat when the pair were working the company’s Scotland Coast to Coast event. They were later engaged at the same spot and now have two children.
“What doesn’t break you makes you stronger and that cliché is definitely true of this business and our marriage,” says Mee.
“When the chips are down you have to dig deep. It’s a real strength and feels in some ways that we have created a family business and then a really nice brand that people trust.”
Rat Race has had transactional offers for the business in the past, with one deal falling through a decade ago. Mee is having too good a time to think of the work involved in pulling private investment over the line.
“We are travelling the world, our customers are loving the product and we are, dare I say it, fighting easy for now," he says. "Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy that.”
