Westport Sea2Summit adventure race allows athletes to experience the beauty of Ireland

Held in Westport, Ireland, the Westport Sea2Summit adventure race will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2011. The race incorporates some of the biggest thrills in Westport, including Croagh Patrick, Clew Bay, the Sheaffry Mountains, and the new greenway.

Two separate races, each with three categories, will include road running, cycling, mountain hiking, obstacle courses, and a sea run across a shore line (the maximum height of the water will be 2 feet deep). The first race is the Sea2Summit Spirit, which caters to participants who have never done an adventure race before, while the Sea2Summit Supreme gives athletes an extra challenge. The three categories for each race include Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

For more information or to sign up for the race yourself, click here.

Video: 2011 National Parkour Summit competition

The 2011 National Parkour Summit competition took place in Seattle, Washington. World class traceurs, including Levi Meeuwenberg, Frosti Zernow, Brian Orosco, and Tyson Cecka competed in speed competitions at Gasworks Park where two obstacle courses were set up. The first course was an Adult Open competition at Parkour Visions’ brand new gym, while the second was an Adult Invitational. Each participant was given two chances to run three timed courses. While competing, each traceur was able to learn about themselves as they created faster ways to overcome obstacles.

Check out the event for yourself in this video:


5k zombie infested obstacle course comes to the United States

Adventure-lovers and zombie-enthusiasts will be excited to hear about a new zombie infested obstacle course coming to the United States this Fall. Like any other obstacle course event, such as Warrior Dash or Spartan Race, Run for Your Lives will include man-made challenges (12, to be exact) as well as tests of physical fitness. This obstacle course in particular will involve mud, water, climbing, crawling, ducking, diving, running, and maybe even blood, as you navigate through sewage systems and conquer uphill climbs to reach the finish line.

However, unlike your usual obstacle course race, there is a scary twist here. Participants will be given a flag belt that will hold flags that represent their health during the course. While making your way through the event, zombies will be attacking and trying to grab these flags. Don’t worry too much if you lose a flag, however, as there are “health bonuses” hidden throughout the course. If you lose all your health flags, you die and the zombies win.

This video game come to life has different possible routes to the finish line, so runners should be aware that while Run for Your Lives is called a 5K it could end up being longer. Participants are encouraged to dress up however they would like, as the living or the dead. There will also be an Apocalypse Party after the event so you can celebrate your survival (or drink with the rest of your new zombie friends).

Just in time for Halloween, the first Run For Your Lives event will take place on October 22, 2011, in Baltimore, Maryland. Other dates and locations include:

SkyMall Monday: Telekinetic Obstacle Course

I considered sending this week’s SkyMall Monday directly to your brains rather than posting it here on Gadling. I mean, the human brain is so powerful that surely I can transmit messages to you directly by simply focusing my energy towards that goal. I bend all of my own spoons that way. However, I realized that I would never be able to “speak” with you telepathically through the foil helmet that I wear to keep other people’s messages from reaching me. It’s a bit of a Catch 22. So here I am writing SkyMall Monday yet again and wasting my brain power. Not that SkyMall and all of its goodness are in any way, shape or form a waste of our minds. But I do feel as if I am failing to utilize my brain’s full potential. Thankfully, SkyMall has stepped up to help us all harness the tremendous power of our most fantastic organ. No, we won’t be speaking telepathically or helping paraplegics to interact with the world around them using only their brains. No, SkyMall has eschewed those trivial matters and chosen to address the single greatest problem facing the world today: boredom. Finally, we can battle our free time by playing a game that requires only the sheer force of our brains. Because we now have the Telekinetic Obstacle Course.For centuries, man has confronted boredom with nothing more than our hands. We’ve had to play foolish games like Patty Cake, Cat’s Cradle and Hand Vagina (NSFW). These were foolish trifles that embarrassed us all. Were we not capable of more? Certainly, we were. But we didn’t know how to reach our true potential. So we idled away the time by convincing ourselves that slapping each other was amusing. And when that wasn’t enough, we created games that completely forbid the use of hands in a desperate attempt to consider ourselves as evolved. But now, we’ve finally solved the problem of how to kill time without using any of our appendages.

Think I’m exaggerating just how important this development is? Well, it’s a good thing that you can’t read my mind right now because I’m calling you all sorts of names. See if you can wrap your puny minds around the SkyMall product description:

This is the game that uses your focused brain waves to maneuver a ball through an obstacle course…As you relax and concentrate, the headband sends a wireless signal (based on your mental commands) to the game’s air fan, which increases or decreases its speed, suspending or lowering a foam ball through one of eight obstacles, including hoops, teeter-totters, baskets, or chutes.

Oh, this is the game that uses my focused brain waves. I thought that was Guess Who. And it’s about time someone created a game that involved chutes. Am I right?

So, seclude yourself in your all-white room, relax and concentrate. No need to use your hands or even invite over a friend. All you need is your mind. And that headband. And apparently a teeter-totter. We’ve evolved.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.