Each year on Shrove Tuesday, a pancake race is held between two towns, Liberal, Kansas, and Olney England. This tradition was established in 1950 when the mayor of Liberal read a story about the tradition in Olney where women dress up in scarves and aprons and run 415 yards through the streets of their town. The pancake must be flipped at the start of the race an again at the finish line. Each town does their own race and times the participants. The town with the fastest runner claims the international pancake race champion. The record currently stands at Liberal 38 wins and Olney 29. Twice the results had to be disqualified due to a timing error and interference from a news casting truck. This year the race was won by Gaby Covarrubias of Liberal, Kansas, with a time of 1:08:85.
Over the years, the pancake race has become so popular that it has turned into a 4 day event. There are races for men and children who also dress in traditional "pancake race" attire, as well as pancake eating and flipping contests.
In Physical Education we also had a pancake race just for fun. Students dressed in aprons and bandannas, carried a skillet with a real pancake, flipped it and ran through the gym. Unfortunately, we rarely have weather conducive to the children being outside for this event, but they still seem to have fun.
Mrs. Gallagher's students show off their bandannas, aprons, skillets, and pancakes.
Mrs. Manamperi's students pose in their Pancake Race attire.
What a great flip.
Students practiced the pancake flip with beanbags first before trying the pancake.
This student runs fast while trying to keep the pancake in the skillet.
We held our Pancake Race in the gym due to cold weather.
