How do you win a race after being knocked unconscious? You could try asking 19-year-old Canadian Delaney Irving, who found out that she’d won Gloucester’s annual cheese rolling competition from a medical tent, but even she might not be able to tell you.
“I remember hitting my head,” Irving told Greatest Hits Radio Gloucester on Monday, after she’d unconsciously won the women’s race. “I remember it hurting, and then I remember waking up in the tent.”
Grasping her prize in hand—a seven-pound cheese roll—Irving joked, “I can eat this tonight.”
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The annual race takes place on Coopers Hill, which boasts a steep 45-degree incline according to Canadian Running Magazine. Contestants scramble down the grass in pursuit of a Double Gloucester, and whoever gets there first gets to take home the big cheese.
The Guardian notes that this year’s races proceeded in spite of safety concerns. Hundreds wound up participating this year, and the BBC reports that thousands gathered to watch.
Daredevils apparently flew in from far and wide. In addition to Irving, Philadelphian Nick Penrose also flew in from North America for the adrenaline-pumping challenge. (He’s previously done obstacle courses, he told Greatest Hits Radio Gloucester, and he and his wife once ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.)
As for what these races actually look like? Well, it’s about what you’d expect: basically a re-enactment of that stampede scene from The Lion King, except instead of wildebeests it’s a gaggle of frenzied humans scrambling down a grassy hill in pursuit of cheese.
In the end, Matt Crolla—the 28-year-old who won the first race of the afternoon—perhaps said it best. “I’m glad I’m pretty conscious and I’ve not got many serious injuries,” he said. And when asked how he trained for this?
“I don’t think you can train for it, can you, really?” he said with a smile. “It’s just being an idiot.”
