The Kimberley Bed Race, the first of many to come, follows a long tradition of bed races round the world. Ever since the first beds on wheels, fun-loving and adventurous folks have been challenging each other to bed races.

According to Uncyclopedia, the first bed race was in February of 1868. The story apparently goes like this. A man named Harry Foghorn Dynamite was awakened from his sleep when his bed began to roll and crashed into a wall. Harry, being an entrepreneurial sort of person, had a great idea of what he thought of as a fool-proof way to make some money. Instead of a horse race, he would race beds.

Harry formed a bed-racing league and they kicked off with the first event which was named the Bed-wetter 500; 127 enthusiastic people showed up. Unfortunately, the race was a huge failure and Harry was banned from Boston that day. That’s the story, folks!  You can believe it or not.

The inaugural bed race on Saturday, July 2 will be a fundraising event for the Cranbrook Kimberley Hospice Society. They will be joined in the endeavour by the Rotary Club’s Pancake Breakfast at Centre 64. The race will be introduced with great fanfare by the Kimberley Pipe Band.

There will be 18 bed-race teams of five persons. The beds will be supplied unless individual teams decide to create their own.

Race details are as follows:

• Register now and provide names of team members on race day;
• Teams of five people have four pushing and one in the bed;
• Rotary Pancake Breakfast is from 9 to 11 a.m.;
• Check-in from 9 to 10 a.m.;
• Kids’ bed pan races begin at 9:30 a.m.;
• Piping of the beds at 9:50 a.m.;
• The winning team will be awarded the Bedpan trophy;
• Helmets are mandatory for persons in the beds;
• Each race consists of three teams. Winner moves on to the next round.

Register your team.

Register by June 15 and get the early bird price!

Last day of registration: June 30.

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