Isle of Man

Issue: Where the heck is that?

Short Answer: Wikipedia tells me it "is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles."

Reasoning: Before I get to the Isle of Man, and its purpose in a sports blog, let me apologize, to the three of you who read this, for being a deadbeat blogger.  I have been busy lately, and when that happens, the sports blog suffers first.  How bad have I been?  Check out the total number of posts in 2011:

• January - 18
• February - 14
• March - 10
• April - 9
• May - 9
• June - 5 (I'm sensing a trend here...)
• July - 4
• August - 4
• September - 3
• October - 5 (This is what statisticians call an "outlier")
• November - 3

So, I am here on December 1st, not with a great sports story, or my take on a controversy, but a post to attempt to up my numbers (and readers, but let's be honest...).  So, without further ado, I give you the Isle of Man Motorcycle race.  Huh?  I go back to Wikipedia, which tells us "[t]he International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race is a motorcycle racing event held on the Isle of Man and was for many years the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world...[t]he race is run in a time-trial format on public roads closed for racing by the provisions of an Act of Tynwald (the parliament of the Isle of Man)."  Sounds fairly benign, right?  Let us continue.  The course which this race is run on is called the Snaefell Mountain Course.  This course starts "at the town of Douglas on the south-east coast, [then] takes a wide sweep to the west and north to enter the town of Ramsey on the north-east coast and thence return to the starting point, each lap measuring 37 3/4 miles and taking in over 200 bends while climbing from sea level to an altitude of over 1,300 ft. This circuit is the epitome of the natural road course, all the roads used being ordinary public highways closed for the racing and practice sessions."  Alright, this is starting to sound a little crazy.  One may ask, since this is a time trial race, what is the record for fastest lap (remember, the course is over 37 miles)?  In 2009, a man named John McGuinness finished a lap in 17 minutes and 12 seconds, which means his average speed was 131.578 miles per hour.  On a motorcycle.  On regular city streets.  Holy.  Crap.

My words don't do this race justice.  A video would.  Just remember as you watch this, that since this race began in 1907, 237 people have died in either practices or races.  These riders have stones the size of Jupiter, but, as for their brains....

Here is the unbelievable video (They show a few crashes, and I am assuming everyone lives or they wouldn't show it in the video.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.  Enjoy.):