Cheese Chase Tradition
Every year on May 22 people in England chase Double Gloucester cheese wheels down a large hill in an absolutely twisted and dangerous competition. Several chunks of cheese weighing about seven pounds each are chucked down the hill and dozens of contestants take off after them. Besides getting exercise anyone who catches a cheese gets to keep it.
Here's where the danger comes in. The crazy English don't get injured fighting over a hunk of cheese. They hurt themselves running after the cheese. Because the hill is so steep, cheese chasers almost always end up somersaulting as far as they run. Last year the winner, Craig Carter, broke his arm but he still gave everyone a big smile and admitted that a few years before he had broken his other arm doing the same chase.
At least 18 other people were hurt, including a bystander who failed to dodge a bouncing cheese. He ended up in the hospital with a head injury after he bailed 100 feet down the steep hill. Despite all the people that walk away bleeding and sore every year the tradition has been going on for hundreds of years and doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. You wouldn't catch any Canadians or Americans running after cheese, unless of course they happened to be in England on May 22.
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