On weekends I usually live in the quiet town of Maryborough, about 250kms north of Brisbane and just west of Hervey Bay. Recently, I was driving through the center of town and saw the entire Maryborough High School oval covered in swags, tents, teachers and students. A little confused I went home to investigate by the only means I know how, Google. I didn't think to turn on the TV or ask a local, so apparently, Maryborough has hosted the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge for twelve years and essentially high school students create vehicles ranging from bike looking to spaceship that race for 24 hours around a 1.5 km track in teams.
I was delighted, how wonderful an event for the community to gather around and boy, those poor kids' legs would feel tremendously sore the following day, I couldn't think of a better way to ware them out.
When I arrived around midday on the Saturday I felt like I was watching an Australian rendition of Cool Runnings. It was like watching a raging group of motorists only they didn't listen to 'keep left' being shouted out by the marshals, or 'only overtake on the right!!'
There were plenty of high speed crashes, bike helmets some how sufficed but i would be wearing full bodied bubble wrap. Laughs and nervous jitters aside the kids jumped back in and just kept peddling.
