Oxted Pram Race 2009
Early this month, I participated in what I would think the most outrageous race I have ever been in my life. Well, I suppose it is not so unusual in England, but for me costumes and dress-ups are not normally my kind of thing. We saw the poster advertising the race one fine Friday afternoon. I laughed at it and said "What?? Prammmssss?" Then Andy asked if I was interested to join the Oxted Pram Race 2009, my first thought was "No wayyyyyyyy", then seconds later I thought "Ah well, I might not be here this time next year, so this might be my once in a lifetime being ridiculous. Plus no one here knows me anyway. Might as well. Okay!"
Before I knew it, we were discussing a team name while having a beer, and I was appointed team leader. Yeay! Team name - The AWE PAIRS!!!:)
I told myself I was NOT going in costume, but then later Andy found pictures of previous year's races, and omg everyone has gone all out for costumes and building amazing prams. So I agreed to go in costume, but a rather safe one:) Not Andy though.
It was great atmosphere during the race day. Everyone was dressed up walking in a big field. You name it, they have it. Batman, Legoman, Smurfs, Wimbledon Tennis players, policemen, firemen, prisoners, nuns, cavemen etc. Andy's friend, Bill let us borrow Ben and Sue's old pram. It was a baby pram, but surprisingly we fit in it. Heh. Oxted looked like a small village, but the amount of people that turned up was astounding. Lots of families, lots of children with water guns. It didn't look thaaaaaaat many at first, but once the race started, and the children started firing, we all got soaked in no time.
There were 7 stops, some pubs, a cricket club. At each stop we were to drink 1/2 a pint of beer then swap places. Andy started off first. By the 4th stop, we were both feeling really sick. Running and drinking beer REALLY does not go together. Especially the last bit of the race was an uphill run. We just stopped and standing there with beers in our hand, panting away, soaked and we couldn't carry on. A man came up to us shouting "Oi, in case you haven't noticed, it's a race!!!!!!" All right, all right.. sick as we felt we downed the alcohol and moved on.
Here's a video of the pram race. Can you spot us? Hint, I got stuck and had to swap. Hehe. We came in 64th place out of 84 teams. Not bad for a first time?
Before I knew it, we were discussing a team name while having a beer, and I was appointed team leader. Yeay! Team name - The AWE PAIRS!!!:)
I told myself I was NOT going in costume, but then later Andy found pictures of previous year's races, and omg everyone has gone all out for costumes and building amazing prams. So I agreed to go in costume, but a rather safe one:) Not Andy though.
It was great atmosphere during the race day. Everyone was dressed up walking in a big field. You name it, they have it. Batman, Legoman, Smurfs, Wimbledon Tennis players, policemen, firemen, prisoners, nuns, cavemen etc. Andy's friend, Bill let us borrow Ben and Sue's old pram. It was a baby pram, but surprisingly we fit in it. Heh. Oxted looked like a small village, but the amount of people that turned up was astounding. Lots of families, lots of children with water guns. It didn't look thaaaaaaat many at first, but once the race started, and the children started firing, we all got soaked in no time.
There were 7 stops, some pubs, a cricket club. At each stop we were to drink 1/2 a pint of beer then swap places. Andy started off first. By the 4th stop, we were both feeling really sick. Running and drinking beer REALLY does not go together. Especially the last bit of the race was an uphill run. We just stopped and standing there with beers in our hand, panting away, soaked and we couldn't carry on. A man came up to us shouting "Oi, in case you haven't noticed, it's a race!!!!!!" All right, all right.. sick as we felt we downed the alcohol and moved on.
Here's a video of the pram race. Can you spot us? Hint, I got stuck and had to swap. Hehe. We came in 64th place out of 84 teams. Not bad for a first time?
