Knaresborough, England (River Nidd)
I Made the Bed During the Knaresborough Bed Race
Teams push a bed through town and then across a river. My team was fast. I kept stopping to make the bed properly.
The Great Knaresborough Bed Race turned 60 this year. Six runners push a decorated bed, with a passenger on board, 2.4 miles through town, then swim it across the River Nidd. The theme was the Swinging Sixties. I was a runner.
Our Race
The start. Our bed looked wonderful: flower stickers and a quilt in orange and purple, very sixties. Our passenger waved from under her helmet, and we were off.
The park. The sheets came untucked at the first bend. I stopped to tuck them in. The team kept running.
The gorge. The pillow fell off. I fluffed it and put it back, the right way up, as my mother taught me.
The hill. I asked everyone to stop so I could smooth the quilt. They said no. I smoothed it while running uphill, the toughest possible way to make a bed.
The river. Thirty yards of fast water, with the bed, the passenger and all of us in it together. You can’t make a bed in a river. I tried.
The Finish
We didn’t win. The winners finished minutes ahead of us, with their bed in a terrible state.
But ours was the only bed at the finish that had been made, at least four times. A marshal told me the race isn’t about how well the bed is made. I told him every race is, if you think about it hard enough. Then I looked at our bed. The river had unmade all of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who rides on the bed?
One passenger, in a helmet and a life jacket. Not me. I was too busy with the housekeeping.
Did the bed make it across the river?
Yes, with all of us holding on. The pillow made it too, eventually, on its own.