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Sport: Athletic
Famous Places, Ridiculous Races   (+15)  [vote for, against]
Silly, yet still perfectly competitive, races at famous locations.

Suggestions:

200km London bike race, around that roundabout that goes by Big Ben and the Parliament Building. Timer chips will be required and will count the number of laps. Participation is limited by the number of bicycles that can fit in the roundabout. Strategies include pushing your way to the middle for the shortest distance ride, and riding on the outside to avoid the crowds.

20km San Francisco hill climb, up the twisty part of Lombard Street, down the stairs.

10km Venetian canal swim. Nose clip required.

(This idea inspired by a tiny turning circle near my house. I was on my way to map out a 3 mile running route, and wondered if I should save time and just run around the turning circle some number of times. Adding a mass of people for a race seemed appropriately ridiculous for this place.)
-- Worldgineer, Aug 16 2006

The bike race one would be good to watch - but only speeded up with the benny hill music playing over it.

[+]
-- monojohnny, Aug 16 2006


The Golden Gate pogo sprint?
-- Zimmy, Aug 16 2006


Wacky Races, all over again.
-- DrCurry, Aug 16 2006


the Big Dig skateboard fest...

{{{[[[+]]]}}}
-- xandram, Aug 16 2006


//the Big Dig skateboard fest// with flying leaps over falling concrete tunnel segments
-- xenzag, Aug 16 2006


The Big Dig race is more suitable to be digitised for a video game.
-- methinksnot, Aug 16 2006


Surely the Big Dig is better suited for surfing?
-- Shz, Aug 16 2006


Look kids, it's Big Ben... Parliament...
-- phundug, Aug 17 2011


Dodge Monaco racing: Lower Wacker Drive.

Mini Cooper Racing: Palazzo a Vela and sewer pipes.

Freefall speeding / gliding / navigating a balloon-suspended course...
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 17 2011


I built parts for the Big Dig (in a fab shop here in Maine, not onsite), and I can assure you that while it may be surfable under optimum conditions, this is most definitely not advised. It contains some very hard and utterly immovable structures that were built by a welder who really gets into his work.

Skating, maybe. I understand protruding metal objects are very popular with skateboarders.
-- Alterother, Aug 17 2011


//that roundabout// Sp.: M25
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 17 2011


20-meter crosswalk dash at any major intersection in Rome.
-- Alterother, Aug 17 2011


If you're dashing at a Rome intersection, you're doing it wrong. You have to stroll oblivious, as if a straw-sucking imbecile ambling blithely along an overgrown canal towpath, into the oncoming, allowing the traffic to arrange itself around you. Preferably while sporting calfskin snaffle-bit loafers.
-- calum, Aug 17 2011


I haven't been there since I was 13, so maybe I remember it differently...
-- Alterother, Aug 17 2011


// crosswalk dash at any major intersection in Rome //

Our advice ? "Use the Force, Luke ....."
-- 8th of 7, Aug 17 2011



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