Arrange the bread-eating race! A roundup of fun, exciting, and hilarious ideas
The bread-eating race has long been a classic and popular event at sports festivals.
It’s a unique competition where bread is hung along the course, and participants bite it with no hands and run to the finish line.
If you’re going to do it, why not add your own twist to make it even more exciting? To meet that need, this article introduces variations on the bread-eating race.
We’ve gathered ideas from three perspectives: rule modifications, ways to hang the bread, and even ideas for hanging items other than bread.
Please use them as a reference.
Arrangement of rules (1–10)
tie both hands
You might feel tempted to use your hands when grabbing the bread, but in this bread-eating race we tie hands from the start to prevent that.
Tying hands could also be a handicap while running, so please be careful to avoid injuries: use a soft cloth like a handkerchief or towel to tie the hands, and make sure it can be quickly untied in case anything happens.
dizzy bat
How about incorporating the classic dizzy-bat game—often seen on variety shows—into a bread-eating race? Before grabbing the bread, have participants bend over with the bat as the axis, spin a set number of times, and then go for the bread.
Watching people get dizzy and struggle to grab the bread will be entertaining not just for the participants but for the spectators as well.
Since they may lose their balance and fall, be sure to take safety precautions, such as laying down mats.
If you touch the bread with your hand, you’re disqualified.
In a bread-eating race, it’s traditionally considered proper to grab the bread with your mouth.
If that’s the case, let’s set a firm rule that you must carry the bread in your mouth all the way to the finish line.
Not touching it with your hands until the end heightens the tension to the maximum.
Since most people don’t usually do tasks using only their mouths, it also tests dexterity.
Adding this one extra constraint makes it more fun, so give it a try at least once.
Hang numbered cards and redeem them after the finish
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0gKTzJyvLw/Here’s a recommended method for those who find it difficult to hang real bread or who are concerned about hygiene.
Use a grabber toy to pick a card with a number on it, then exchange it for the bread with the corresponding number.
Depending on their age, operating the grabber can be tricky, but when they manage to grab one and trade it for bread, it’s really exciting and motivating.
It might also help motivation to announce from the start which bread corresponds to each number.
Give it a try!
piggyback
If you add a team element to the bread-eating race—which is usually seen as an individual competition—you might discover a whole new kind of fun.
The idea is to run the race while giving a piggyback ride.
The person carrying will find it harder to run due to the weight, and at the same time must figure out the optimal position so the person on top can grab the bread more easily.
Clear communication from the rider—like calling out instructions—along with mutual adjustments and quick coordination between the two are key points for winning.
Grab with a reaching tool
Instead of using your mouth, try grabbing the bread with a grabber (magic hand).
With a grabber, it can be hard to apply the right amount of force, and even if you pinch it, it’s easy to drop because controlling the pressure is tricky.
So it might be more difficult than taking it with your mouth.
Enjoy that feeling of things not going quite the way you want.
Also, you can make a grabber yourself using chopsticks, so if you’re aiming for a homemade sports festival, it could be fun to make one.
Using one from a 100-yen shop is also convenient and keeps costs down.
Hang a giant French baguette
When it comes to bread-eating races, the bread is usually about the size of an anpan, a croissant, or a bread roll, but let’s try it here with a big baguette.
It’s so large that people would probably start laughing the moment they see it hanging there.
You could make it more challenging by setting a rule that you must bite into it carefully so it doesn’t fall, and then reach the goal while still holding it in your mouth; or you could allow tucking it under your arm and running to the finish—that sounds fun too.
By all means, get yourself a baguette and try it for tomorrow’s breakfast.