By virtue of a long-time reader and the Wall Street Journal, comes this unbelievable tale of a man versus horse contest recently held in Wales. And yes, the horse won--in fact, only twice since this contest has been staged (on and off since 1979) has a man won. For those who are curious, those wins came on hot days because horses have difficulty sweating through all that horsehair.
The distance is a staggering 22 miles and the race pits man against beast in the most literal sense. This year, 287 runners competed against 50 horses and the members of both species admitted to training for the event (well, the trainers of the horses did the admitting).
The runners get a fifteen minute head start to avoid bunching everyone together at the start and the horses get 15 minutes subtracted from their time at the finish. The course covers all sorts of terrain--hills, marshes, water hazards and the winning rider covered the distance in two hours and 8 minutes! The fastest man was 17 minutes behind!
Make no mistake--this is grueling for all--but also intriguing. Apparently Jesse Owens once beat a horse in a 100 yard dash but at this longer distance, the horses usually prevail. Which makes it all the more competitive for the humans!
Read all about it here!
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