Happy Pancake Day

Today wasn't just any Tuesday:

It was "Pancake Day"--or Shrove Tuesday, as it's perhaps more widely known--the day when everyone is supposed to eat a pancake in preparation for the period of abstinence known as Lent. Well, I didn't eat a pancake today, but I sure saw a lot of them because I headed over to Brick Lane for The Great Spitalfields Pancake Race. This is serious athletics, people: teams of four run relays while holding a frying pan that contains a pancake. At two designated "flip lines" along the short run, each person has to stop and flip her or his pancake before continuing. If you drop your pancake, all you have to do is pick it up and continue. I arrived in time to see the participants milling about:

We waited for the heats to begin . . .

and they were off!

Here's one of the "flip lines," along with a referee to ensure that everyone flips.

In spite of the theatrics, there was actually some energetic running on display,

but most of the attention seemed to be on the colourful costumes.

Here's another "action shot" of flipping, under another referee's watchful eye:

And this shot is from the final race, with the purple-clad team emerging the winners of this year's engraved frying pan!