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Crowd running

The urban sport for young at heart.
 
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The principle of this sport is relatively simple. A high street is chosen as a venue, preferably one with a large number of people on it and at the busiest time of the day, most likely to be lunchtime, is chosen as the start time. A series of competitors known as crowd runners most then proceed in attempting to reach the end of the street in the fastest possible time, while dodging the on flowing crowd and hitting as few members of the crowd as possible.

I’ve personally tried this in my local city’s high street when I was trying to catch a bus and then on another day to meet a friend, both times I was in a hurry. I actually enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of dodging the crowd, ducking and weaving through the massed throng. I thus thought (eventually) that this would make an exciting sport to participate in.

(I’m not sure about watching, but I suppose that spectators could watch from balconies above the street and that the competitors could wear luminous clothing for easy spotting)

Dodging the crowd effectively requires good coordination and skill as well as the ability to manipulate your body’s position and speed. It could be classed as either an extreme sport or an urban sport, and hopefully an Olympic event. (eventually)

Note: This idea in no way contains any Teflon, except it’s mention in this note.

talen, Jan 09 2003

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       this is known in criminal circles as *steaming*
po, Jan 09 2003
  

       I didn't know that. But I want to make it a sport.
talen, Jan 09 2003
  

       Could there be a handicap system based on previous races, where crowd runners have to carry shopping bags?
silverstormer, Jan 09 2003
  

       If the traffic lanes are part of the 'playing field' then the sport ends up a bit like 'frogger', with leaps to and fro' the road to add daring spurts of speed. How about 'plants' who will deliberately do the left shuffle- right shuffle 'accidental' blocking move. If two competitors play the same pitch one will inevitably cruise in the others 'slipstream' before that final attempt to overtake. How about very tempting bargains available in the shops en route?
weedy, Jan 09 2003
  

       Richard Ashcroft would be rubbish at this.
sild, Jan 09 2003
  

       I think the handicap system is good. And to solve the problems weedy mentioned it good be done as best of 3 or out of 4 with the competitors swapping positions on the street. Competitors could be giving shopping vouchers for making it to the finish line, thus eliminating the temptation to jump into shops for bargains.
talen, Jan 09 2003
  

       Could the runners wear teflon clothing to help them slip through the crowd?
half, Jan 09 2003
  

       Well I think that might only work in tightly compressed crowds which were semi-stationary.
talen, Jan 09 2003
  

       OK, just trying to help out in your quest to Teflon-ize the world.
half, Jan 09 2003
  

       Some buddies and I used to do this on blades in Cardiff City centre. Great laugh it were. Never hit any one but one of my wheels once got caught in a drain cover and I did a fairly spectacular bail. oh and [sild] good work fella, along the same lines I reckon Ian Brown would be real good at it if made to cycle backwards.
Zircon, Jan 09 2003
  

       [bliss] what do you mean you're starting to smell a rat's ass? I'm innocent I tell you! I'm just a small child caught up in a huge and complex conspiracy theory to take over the world!!! <weep,weep>
talen, Jan 09 2003
  

       A bit like main street over there.
Zircon, Jan 09 2003
  

       Right there.
A little mouse with clogs on...
Jinbish, Jan 09 2003
  

       Just behind you and slightly to the left
Zircon, Jan 09 2003
  

       ????
talen, Jan 10 2003
  

       This seems like fun for the runners; not so much for the crowd. Maybe compensatory fines could be paid by runners to anyone who is jostled or startled out of their intended path. This would also make the runners more honest about "hitting as few members of the crowd as possible."
beauxeault, Jan 10 2003
  

       Well, I declare [Jin]'s going clip-clippety-clop on the stair.
PeterSilly, Jan 10 2003
  

       This is similar in principle to the Waterloo Bridge Handicap (which I have mentioned here before). This was a short film starring Leonard Rossiter in which commuters tried to be the first to get from the train to the far end of Waterloo Bridge. Though in the film they were not allowed to break into a run.

Just for the record, it wasn't a film that had twins in, or triplets or quins in.
DrBob, Jan 10 2003
  
      
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