Wife carrying, bog snorkeling, bathtub races, and run up the Empire State Building. And, these are just some of the wacky and weird contests people enter. Many of them don't require a lot of training, just stamina and a willingness to go all out.
1. Mow Down the Competition in a Lawn Mower Race
Dave Etheridge-Barnes,/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images
Kids to adults are participating in lawn mower races around the country and in England. The blades on these lawn mowers have been removed, so you can't cut the grass with them, but the engines have been worked on so competitors can reach up to speeds of 60 miles per hour.
If you don't have a souped-up lawn mower to race, check out this demo on making a racing lawnmower
2. You Don't Have to Be a "Redneck" to Play in the Summer Redneck Games
Stephen Morton/Getty Images News/Getty Images
You can spend the day competing in the Hubcap Hurl, the Bobbin’ for Pig’s Feet Fest, and Redneck Horseshoes —when you're pitching toilet seats at a stake. The games happen every July in East Dublin, Georgia. This year they're scheduled for July 10, 2010.
Entry fees are cheap - $5 - and all proceeds go to local charities. East Dublin is about 140 miles from Georgia.
3. Join the World's Largest Tomato Fight in Spain
Buñol Town Council, Spain
Every summer, thousands of travelers flock to a small town in the Valencia region of Spain for the Tomatina Tomato Fight one of the world's messiest food fights. During the battle, more than 240,000 pounds of tomatoes are hurled among the competitors, until they are sliding around in tomato juice, pulp and seeds. The festival is held on the last Wednesday of August. The link above leads to About.com's Guide to Spain's pictures and description of the fight.
4. Playing in the Mud at the Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images News/Getty Images
5. Would You Rather Enter the Bog Snorkeling or the Bike Snorkeling Contest?
© Crown copyright (2009) Visit Wales
The annual World Bog Snorkeling Championships in Wales every summer draws more competitors than the Bike Bog Snorkeling Championships. But, in either of these bog snorkeling contests, held every summer, you must submerge your body into filthy, dank-smelling trenches dug out of the Waen Rhydd peat bog near Llanwrtyd Wells in mid-Wales.
During the mountain bike bog race, competitors peddle a bike, with a lead-filled frame and water-filled tires, on the bottom of a six-foot-deep peat-bog trench. The third contest is a Bog Snorkeling Triathlon, which includes a run, a 'swim' in a peat-bog trench and a mountain bike ride.
6. Want to Win Your Wife's Weight in Beer? Join This Competition
Sunday River
Could you carry your wife through a 278-yard obstacle course? The "Estonian carry," where the wife holds her husband around the waist and tightens her legs around his neck so his hands are free, is the carry of choice at these races. At the annual North American Wife Carrying Championship, the winners receive five times the wife's weight in cash and the traditional prize of the wife's weight in beer.
The contest originated in Finland, where the World championship rae is held every year. It reportedly started as a joke based on a tradition that men ran into villages and picked up and carried away the women they wanted to marry. You can see the current, humorous version in the video on YouTube.
7. Are You in Shape to Race Up the Empire State Building?
The top time for men is 9 minutes and 33 seconds. That's how long it took Paul Crake to run up the 1,576 steps to the Observatory deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. If you're interested in competing in the 34th annual race, click on this headline link above for the details, which are on the Empire State Building's Web site.
8. Don't Fill Your Tub With Water During the Bathtub Races
Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society
During the original bathtub race, some 200 tubbers (in every type of craft imaginable) entered the fun competition. Amazingly, 47 completed the 36 mile course to Vancouver's Fisherman's Cove across the straits of Georgia in Canada's British Columbia. Today, the "bathtubs" are more complex boats that travel at faster speeds. This year, the World Championships will be held Sunday, July 25, 2010 during the annual Nanaimo Marine Festival, July 22-25 in British Columbia, Canada. Bathtub Races are held presently in several places in Canada, in the U.S. and Australia.
9. Mingle With 3,000 Others in the Mud at Bloco de Lama in Brazil
Bloco da Lama
About.com's Guide to Brazil Travel, Patricia Ribeiro, says, "Wearing swim suits and rags, slathered in mud, adorned with branches and bones and crying "ooga ooga ha ha", over 3,000 people parade through the colonial district in Paraty, Brazil during Carnival Saturday afternoon." The next Bloco de Lama Carnival is Saturday, March 5, 2011.
