I’ve just put the Torch relay one to see a bus blasting down a wet Northumberland road at 60mph.

What’s all that about??!?

Yeah it’s raining here today so the roads are wet. HTH.

Are moderators allowed to be sarcy buggers? ;o)

Surely it should be run/walked/olympic sported all the way??

If that original bloke who ran from Marathon to report the victory had gone in a Ford Transit maybe he wouldn’t have carked it at the end.

7,600 miles would take a fair while to run so they relay it by vehicle between sections. Then there’s the chaos it would cause closing whole roads.

They should just given it to Eddie Izzard, he’d have run all the way.

It’s a half arsed effort.

Yeah it’s 2 miles on foot, 10 miles on a bus, 1/2 a mile on foot, 20 miles on a bus…….

thats why endurance life have done this http://www.endurancelife.com/realrelay/

The Endurancelife Real Relay is an exciting attempt to follow the entire route of the official Olympic Torch around the British Isles in one continuous non-stop journey, running every step of the way

I only spotted it when IanMunro posted

Must have missed the endurance life newsletter with it. A mate and I are planning to try and get a local leg each when it comes down our way.

This guy is 81 he describes it as his proudest moment of his life.

Arthur Basstoe – Olympic Torch Bearer by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Thousands turn out to see bloke with big gold lighter shocker.

I’m surprised at how many people are going to these events. The local one to me has several large marquees, a fun fair and the Olympic rings on the side of a hill. All very good for the economy if it stops raining

7,600 miles would take a fair while to run so they relay it by vehicle between sections. Then there’s the chaos it would cause closing whole roads.

Ahem..
http://www.endurancelife.com/realrelay/

BTW if anyone knows any runners in the Fort William area, could you pass the link on to them.

/edit, Ah just spotted 29erKeith’s message 🙂

Drac – good for him. I’m not taking anything away from the runners. I just think there should be more of them.

And shouldn’t there be just one torch?

Edward “Bear” Grylls is going to be ziplining off the Tyne Bridge today, as part of the torch celebrations.

And then drinking his own piss.

Out of interest, how many torches have they made, how much did they cost and which far-east country made them? 😉

it went up Snowdon on the train but it was carried by that famous (read: money grabbing) mountaineer, Chris Bonnington.

I’m guess there’s 8000 torches made – to run with the torch you had to buy one for £200. You get to keep it though.

Ahem..
http://www.endurancelife.com/realrelay/

They seem to be along way behind, that was my point.

Yeah Pook there could be more but there’s not.

You only pay for the torch if you wish to keep it not to run it.

My daughter went to see it with the school, she said she would rather have been at double chemistry. 😆

They seem to be along way behind, that was my point.

That’s because they started 10 days after the limpic one.
It’s currently 6 days behind, and should overtake the limpic one in the final few days.

it is a complete farce. I’d love to know how much of the 8,000 mi it actually gets run/walked!

Edward “Bear” Grylls is going to be ziplining off the Tyne Bridge today, as part of the torch celebrations.

I was working at the Sage yesterday and watching them rehearse it, looked like fun.

And then drinking his own piss.

The line ends near the Jury’s Inn where we were staying – he should be able to pick up a pint of it on draft there.

That’s because they started 10 days after the limpic one.
It’s currently 6 days behind, and should overtake the limpic one in the final few days.

Indeed – it’s hardly like it’s difficult to cover 7600 miles (I thought it was supposed to be 8000?) in 70 days running as a relay. Endurancelife are doing it in 60, though of course they’re running 24 hours a day with people running, which would rule out all the corporate jollies as it stops in towns overnight, and would also rule out a lot of the people in the official relay (the official torch was 15 minutes early here – according to the LOCOG spokesman “We identified seven people in the first 20 torchbearers who requested to walk and we needed to factor in extra time for that. On this occasion they were all in a group so we left a little bit early to make up that time.” 🙄 )

Ah they started 10 days later Ok I see but are running twice as many hours a day yeah? Still shows then it wouldn’t have the same. Would have been nice to run it all but it would have been ridiculous.

So, it’s not ‘the’ olympic torch, it’s ‘an’ olympic torch? Or, to give it it’s proper title then, a ‘torch’?

This may be a silly question, but, why? I can, just, see the appeal in seeing The torch pass through, on it’s journey across the country from wherever it starts to That London. That’s a bit epic. But if there’s hundreds of them making epic journeys from one side of town to the other before hopping on a bus, that seems a bit self-defeating to me.

It’s like hearing that the Queen is visiting town, then getting there to find that it’s Mrs Haddock from number 42 in her best frock, carrying a cat wearing a corgi outfit.

Why couldnt they allow local people to run their sections? Instead someone from here is running in North Shields.

And why isnt someone local doing the tyne bridge thing not bear whatever you call him.

Took my daughter to watch it this morning, freezing cold, wet and windy. AT 18 months she was less than impressed.

A good challenge to liven things up a bit is to view the torch at one place and then get on your bike and try and race ahead and see it at the next. I did that for the Dunlop – Beith – Barmill – Lochwinnoch – Kilmacolm – Port Glasgow section.

You can even cycle behind the torch when it is being run or walked with on the closed roads (so long as you dont try and push into the security ‘box’ around it) and experience the atmosphere with crowds all cheering the torch and the runners the fat guy at the back attempting wheelies for his adoring fans.

On reflection though next time i’ll leave out the Contador style pistolero celebrations.

From seeing it pass my door in Wigan a few weeks ago and then watching it pass through my birth town of Ashington this morning it’s evident that the torch bearers only run through populated areas and then bussed at speed with an escort of 20 Met Police outriders stopping everyone going about there business to lock down the roads whilst priority is given to a flame that is costing the tax payers millions of pounds.

did anyone ever say our country is skint??

Yeah it does I agree but look how long it’s taking even doing like that. It’s just away of getting it through as many towns as they can.

Yeah the carriers are all mixed up, they had people from Alnwick carrying it in Alnwick but also form Berwick, Scotland and Newcastle. Then in Newcastle people form Alnwick bit of a mad mix up.

Apparently they lost the torch bearer and supporters when entering Ashingnton, with their track suits on they were well camouflaged amongst the crowd of on lookers.

The cost must be obscene I agree.