Running of the (Not Fernando) Llamas

i was talking to my niece Ingrid yesterday and she told me she was going to go live on a farm. This came as a bit of a surprise as she currently goes to grade school and lives in very urban Minneapolis.

Turns out she's going to "Farm Camp" for five weeks and plans to return afterwards. Ingrid loves animals, so her parents may be thinking she wants her "plan" to be extended.

She said the farm has llamas and i asked her if llamas raced. Ingrid said she didn't think so, but i remained curious, so i told her i would research the question.

And thanks to our good friends at YouTube we find the answer is "yes". In fact, not only are there llama races, there is also an annual event in Hammond, Wisconsin memorialized in a documentary film called "The Running of the Llamas", which in some cases would be more accurately named "The Dragging of the Llamas". Here we see a boy training his llama for racing - i think he has a future champion if the crowds don't scare him...or the llama. And finally, here we get to know some of the great llama racers of all time and their successes and failures.

While this post has nothing to do with soccer, it did give me the gratuitous opportunity to share racing llama videos (as well as The Llama Song), which i think we can all (except perhaps PETA) appreciate.