Big Fat Ostrich

Hello people, and Happy Sunday!

I’m trying to do this as a regular feature where I run a Google News search for the word Ostrich and see if our awesome but freakish bird is making headlines. The last feature turned up this gem, but lemme tell you, I was very happy to find out that a man from Wrexham England ran the London Marathon wearing an Ostrich suit! How great is that?

The original article can be found here, and unfortunately there’s no image accompanying the bit. I’ll do my best to find a clip for y’all.

Now consider this: The guy (identified only as ‘Keith’) ran the full 26.2 miles. WEARING AN OSTRICH SUIT. 26 miles! A real Ostrich probably wouldn’t even break a sweat, but for any human, well, that’s no morning jog. And he did it in 4 hours, 9 minutes. Not too bad at all.

The bystanders were in hysterics as he loped on by, as they should be. I mean, if you see a man running a marathon in full ostrich attire and you don’t soil yourself, well, you’re simply dead ‘in here’ (points to heart).

As it turns out, it’s common to run the London Marathon in a costume. Check out this years records here. In fact Keith didn’t break the record, as he was up against Alistair Martin, a Scot who also ran the marathon dressed as an ostrich. Martin’s time was an incredible 3:42:27. Either way guys, you’re both champions from where we’re sitting.

Believe it or not, in this age of ‘ternetting, I could not find a video or a picture of either of the above mentioned guys wearing their Struthio Camelus costumes. I did however, find one of English Comic Bernie Clifton running with ostrich attire in 1982. Note that the costume makes him appear to be riding an ostrich, and not AS an ostrich. There’s a big difference, but cool all the same.

I’m 2 weeks late to report on the fact that Red faction: Guerrilla has a very VERY pleasing surprise (easter egg?) for you, the player, to unlock. I’ll give you one guess what it is.

Did you guess Ostrich? Cause I didn’t. I guessed a bag of chips. Anyway, if you guessed an Ostrich Hammer, you’d be right. Check out the screen shot:

Although the game was released on April 9 (for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3), there was whispering on the 1st that it was just a sneaky little April Fool’s gag. Turns out that those guys at THQ know what their fans really want: a major weapon that looks like an ostrich. And it’s more than that. It IS an ostrich. An ostrich that can break stuff.

We haven’t reviewed it yet, but we will soon enough. If it has to do with gaming and/or ostriches, we here at BFO will definitely have something to say about it.

M.