Agung Kuncahya B / Xinhua via Zuma Press
Indonesian women wearing high-heel shoes compete during Fun With Your Heels race in Jakarta, April 14. Runners were required to wear 2.75-inch high-heel shoes during the race.
Victor R. Caivano / AP
Yamaha Paolo Sabbatucci of Italy, right, tries to get his motorcycle out of the sand as Yamaha teammate rider John Mckendrick of Chile, waits for him during the 6th stage of the 2013 Dakar Rally from Arica to Calama, Chile, Thursday, Jan. 10.
Franck Fife / AFP - Getty Images
Mini's driver Nani Joan Roma of Spain is stuck in the sand during Stage 6 of the Dakar.
Franck Fife / AFP - Getty Images
Chile's KTM biker Marco Reinike
Victor R. Caivano / AP
Argentine co-driver Bernardo Graue, left, and driver Lucio Alvarez, inside the vehicle, try to free their pick-up stuck on a dune.
Felipe Trueba / EPA
French Ronan Chabot (L) passes Argentinian Lucio Alvarez, stuck in a dune, during the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally between Arica and Calama, Chile, Jan. 10.
Franck Fife / AFP - Getty Images
Italian biker Alessandro Zanotti
Sebastien Bozon / AFP - Getty Images
Participants compete in the Fisherman's Friend Strongmanrun 2012, on October 14, in La Bresse, France.
Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images
Racegoers hold on to their hats during strong winds on day four of Royal Ascot at Ascot racecourse on June 22, in Ascot, England.
Andrew Winning / Reuters
A race goer struggles to keep her hat on in strong winds on the fourth day at Royal Ascot, southwest of London, on June 22.
Andrew Winning / Reuters
A racegoer struggles with her umbrella in strong winds on the fourth day at Royal Ascot, southwest of London, on June 22.
Andrew Winning / Reuters
Race goers struggle to keep their hats on in strong winds on the fourth day at Royal Ascot, southwest of London, on June 22.
Reuters reports -- Ladies, forget those flimsy fascinators and get yourself a proper hat: one that has a base of at least 4 inches in diameter.
So says a new dress code coming into force at this year's Royal Ascot, the annual horse-race meeting attended by Britain's Queen Elizabeth and a highlight of high society's summer season.
"Strapless, off-the-shoulder, halter-neck, spaghetti straps and dresses with a strap of less than 1 inch (2.5cm) are not permitted," says the dress code for lady racegoers lucky enough to have tickets for the exclusive Royal Enclosure.
Andy Rain / EPA
Take a look at the craziest, coolest and most out-there outfits at the annual British event, where the horses take a backseat to fashion.
Olivier Morin / AFP - Getty Images
The America's Cup fleet compete during the America's Cup World Series Match-Racing in Venice's lagoon on May 18.
Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
An aerial view shows the Grand Canal in Venice lagoon on May 18.
Olivier Morin / AFP - Getty Images
France's Team Energy (L) New-Zealand's Team Fly Emirates and Italy's Team Luna-Rossa (C) compete during the America's Cup World Series Match-Racing in Venice's lagoon on May 18.
Olivier Morin / AFP - Getty Images
The America's cup fleet sails in front of of St Mark's square during the America's Cup World Series Match-Racing in Venice's lagoon on May 18.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
A competitor loses control of his pancake while racing during the Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, tradition at the National Cathedral on Tuesday in Washington, DC. Pancake racers use frying pans to flip a cake three times while running about 30 meters against fellow competitors. Shrove Tuesday is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian season of Lent.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Father Matthew Hanisian, assistant rector at St. Alban's Parish, flips a pancake while racing.
Karen Bleier / AFP - Getty Images
A young competitor loses his pancake while running his heat on Tuesday during the annual Washington National Cathedral Pancake Race in Washington, DC.
Michael Regan / Getty Images
A competitor emerges from muddy water during the Tough Guy Challenge endurance race on Jan. 29, in Telford, England. Every year thousands of people run the 8 mile assault course which involves freezing temperatures, fire and ice.
I think that the Tough Guy site answers the question best as to what the race is all about:
Tough Guy™ is the nightmare of being chased by a herd of stallions.
Your only escape route is a mighty and revered obstacle course. Built from trees, 15 metres high with Tarzan ropes swinging. No hats and no hook ups. Just pure, organic grip strength from your cold and wet hands.
Belly flop beneath razor wire, the stallions still snorting at your heels, matching your every step. Look deep into the flames before diving through them straight into shoe sucking mud. Then something wakes you, or does it? Were the stallions just a nightmare?
No time to look back, the narrow tunnels beckon. You bravely enter to discover they're filled with murky water. You can't see. You can't breathe. What chance of survival? Grope around and grab that rope. Pull yourself lungs bursting, into the light! You see the sun, or is it just another cruel mirage?
You are faced with a wall climb, as high as a mountain. No visibility again. Is that smoke, mist or cloud? How do you get down? Take the netting or dive into the freezing lake. You suddenly realise that the sound of stallions behind is fading. You must go on. The only route is through the Arctic water.
A monkey rope, a barbed wire crawl, a rubber snake, a skin ripping snake, you can smell the finish. It's familiar.....you recognise.....it smells like.....cocoa! You know you've earned it!
Denis Balibouse / Reuters
A musher and his dogs compete on a track near the Mont-Cenis Path during the ninth stage of La Grande Odyssee sled dogs race on Jan. 17, 2012. The race crosses the Alps in France covering 621 mile over 11 days. This picture was taken with a long exposure and a fisheye lens.
Onthesnow.com reports, that 'the most difficult dog and sled race in the world" is currently being run in the Alps. La Grande Odyssey crosses the Alps in 11 stages and covers more than 620 miles. The mushers are the best in the world, from 11 different countries.
Given the news lately, it's nice to see that these racial epithets are finally being removed.
AP reports:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Workers on Tuesday began installing new markers at a public cemetery near Sacramento where relocated Gold Rush-era gravestones had been marked with the N-word.
California prison inmates who are part of a work program were placing granite headstones on many of the 36 graves at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery near Folsom, about 25 miles east of the state capital.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers relocated the graves from a site a few miles away known as Negro Hill to build Folsom Dam in 1954. The N-word was chiseled into the new markers, and activists have long sought for them to be replaced.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Steven Abujen, an California prison inmate with the Prison Industry Authority, cleans one of the newly installed headstones that is replacing one of the offensive markers bearing the n-word at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, near Folsom, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 18. In 1954, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers had the remains of 36 bodies buried at the Gold Rush-era Negro Hill Cemetery moved to construct Folsom Lake. When the bodies were moved, the graves were marked by stones with a derogatory term for African-American. Now, some 60 years later the offensive markers are being replaced with newly made granite stones.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Robert Ramirez, of the Stockton Monument Company, removes the lettering on a stencil before sandblasting a headstone that will be used to replace one of the offensive grave makers using the n-word, for the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Robert Ramirez, of the Stockton Monument Company, sandblasts the lettering on a headstone that will replace one of the offensive markers bearing the n-word at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, near Folsom, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011.
Bob Hallinen / The Anchorage Daily News via AP
The aurora borealis, or northern lights, fill the sky above the Takotna, Alaska checkpoint as Karin Hendrickson's dogs rest during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 9, 2011.
See more pictures from the Iditarod here.
Natacha Pisarenko / AP
Helder Rodrigues of Portugal races his Yamaha in the seventh stage of the 2011 Argentina-Chile Dakar Rally between Arica and Antofagasta, Chile, on Sunday Jan. 9, 2011.
Another awesome photo from the motorcycle race of the Argentine-Chile Dakar Rally. I really love the texture and lighting.
Eric Gaillard / Reuters
A competitor rides his motorcycle from Tucuman to Jujuy during the third stage of the South American edition of the Dakar Rally, Jan. 4, 2011.
I like Eric Gaillard's use of light in this picture.
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