Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling race

Spotlight:

Toppling Down Cooper's Hill

What's cheese rolling? Yesterday we had the Indianapolis 500; today we have the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling race. The former has been taking place annually for 100 years; the latter has been around at least twice that long and probably a great deal longer. Go figure. In this race, 20 contestants run down the steep, 300-yard (274-meter) Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire, England, after a seven-to-nine-pound (three-to-four-kilogram) wheel of double Gloucester cheese. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Apparently, it's not as easy as you'd think. The steep descent can be treacherous. Ambulances wait at the bottom for the victims of scrapes, bruises, fractures and sprains. And the prize? The wheel of Gloucestershire cheese.

Quote:

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." — Gilbert K. Chesterton