Bob Peale
angeli ribelli
- Joined
- Sep 4, 1999
- Posts
- 10,535
This Sunday, along with Daily Savings Time in the US, the Discovery Channel will begin televising the Eco-Challenge.
Have you seen this thing? I mean, I'm no pansy, but goddamn! I've run two marathons, and am training for a third, but my rule of thumb is to avoid races where the winning time is measured in days!
For those of you who have never heard of it, it's what Mark Burnett did for fun before he got the bright idea to pay someone a million dollars for this type of torture.
Typically, the rule is that the race has to traverse at least three different eco systems. Each team must have at least one member of the opposite sex, and you are limited to the things that you carry with you (there are certain replenishment points, but it still ain't a lot of stuff. Hell, there are days when I can't even pack my briefcase properly!).
Some memorable moments from past races include:
1. The woman on one of the Japanese teams fracturing her ankle and being CARRIED over the mountain by her teammates.
2. The guy on the Irish team who neglected to share with his teammates that he couldn't swim until after he was in the raging current.
3. The camel races (I always thought that camels were more like dogs with a glandular problem; who knew that they more closely resemble my sister on the the 28 days BEFORE her period actually makes her nice to be around?)
4. The traverse between two ice peaks (think Batman) that had to be halted because a storm was coming that woould have made the competitors little Eco Popsicles hanging over a 300 foot chasm.
and my personal favorite
5. When the US team comprised of Navy SEALS had to be extracted out of the water after their kayak swamped.
The locale is always exotic (Patagonia, Morocco, Australia), and the prize is the right to come back next year (bloody hell!).
So I can't wait to sit there with my bottle of port and my chocolate chip coookies for five nights and watch the lates creation of a species that decided several years ago that hurling itself toward the ground from high up with nothing but a rubber band between you and expiration due to Deceleration Trauma was a good thing!
Have you seen this thing? I mean, I'm no pansy, but goddamn! I've run two marathons, and am training for a third, but my rule of thumb is to avoid races where the winning time is measured in days!
For those of you who have never heard of it, it's what Mark Burnett did for fun before he got the bright idea to pay someone a million dollars for this type of torture.
Typically, the rule is that the race has to traverse at least three different eco systems. Each team must have at least one member of the opposite sex, and you are limited to the things that you carry with you (there are certain replenishment points, but it still ain't a lot of stuff. Hell, there are days when I can't even pack my briefcase properly!).
Some memorable moments from past races include:
1. The woman on one of the Japanese teams fracturing her ankle and being CARRIED over the mountain by her teammates.
2. The guy on the Irish team who neglected to share with his teammates that he couldn't swim until after he was in the raging current.
3. The camel races (I always thought that camels were more like dogs with a glandular problem; who knew that they more closely resemble my sister on the the 28 days BEFORE her period actually makes her nice to be around?)
4. The traverse between two ice peaks (think Batman) that had to be halted because a storm was coming that woould have made the competitors little Eco Popsicles hanging over a 300 foot chasm.
and my personal favorite
5. When the US team comprised of Navy SEALS had to be extracted out of the water after their kayak swamped.
The locale is always exotic (Patagonia, Morocco, Australia), and the prize is the right to come back next year (bloody hell!).
So I can't wait to sit there with my bottle of port and my chocolate chip coookies for five nights and watch the lates creation of a species that decided several years ago that hurling itself toward the ground from high up with nothing but a rubber band between you and expiration due to Deceleration Trauma was a good thing!
