Monday, April 18, 2011

The Relay for Life Cross-Sim Snail Race

On Sunday April 17th, what was billed as the "Greatest RFL Giant Snail Race of all Time and Space" took place on the Second Life mainland. The action began at 11AM SL time at the Superior sim, and took place across about forty more. Along the track, spectators lined up (the organizers asked for no more than ten a sim). And of course there was Racer X in his macro-bunny, more recently joined by Sante Klees in his giant kangaroo rat, cheering them on.

Considering the enormous lag the race can produce, I went to one of the spots along the way, Canal and Castle at the Lakeville sim. There, I ran into one of the spectators, waving a Relay flag and cheering. It was Ariel Loonie of Luskwood. We chatted a little, watching what snails we could see through the lag go by. I myself checked on the Treet.tv broadcasts time to time.

Ariel and I were in front of a French restaraunt. Looking in the back was a surprise: a dead racing snail. Green mush leaked from the shell. Was this the fate of the loser of one of the races? No one was talking.

The race would go on for well over an hour. Finally, the first snail crossed the finish line just in front of the Noyo sim. Or was it really a snail? Winner Tindallra Soothsayer had a heavily modified racing snail with an Easter theme, notably a big bunny face. Instead of the bubbly froth most snails drooled, Easter eggs dropped from it's mouth.

Meeting up with Sante Klees later, he told me organizers behind the scenes joked it was a "snabbit." Did being part bunny give it an unfair advantage? Perhaps the next cross-sim race in May will tell.

*edit* The film of the event is now available



Bixyl Shuftan

1 comment:

  1. Was A great Race and we gave 25,000L to the relay team Kiosk of "Walking Tall for a cure" for entering the race and coming in 10th place in the race but first of the non pro or giant snail relay snails to finish the race!! We raised around 50,000L for The American Cancer Society.

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