Marble Racing


Just before the chaos that is Coronavirus shut everything down, I stumbled upon marble racing. I've always been a fan of oddball sports, so it was no surprise when I immediately took to it. At first, I though it was just videos people had done where a handful of marbles raced down these elaborate sand courses (Marble Rally). Little did I know, it was so much more. Sure, there are some one off races, but there are seasons where marbles qualify to get into them. Then the same marbles compete in race after race, gaining points depending on how they finished. At the end of the season, a champion is crowned.

I would have been all in for just the sand courses, but then I found the youtube channel of the people who runs these races. On top of all of the one off races on sand and other elaborate outdoor courses, there are also marble Olympics (now named Marble League). They adapted various Olympic events where both individual and teams of marbles compete for medals. Points are tracked and overall winners are crowned and get to advance into the following year's league automatically. Oh and there are also opening and closing ceremonies. The detail that goes into this is mind boggling.

If all of that weren't enough, there is now a brand new style of racing done by the same group called Marbula One. It's very similar to Formula One racing in that the races are on set tracks with laps of twists, turns, and straightaways. Just like Marble Rally, the marbles compete in a season of races trying to earn the most points. The first season just started and race number five was yesterday. I've gotten so into it, that I watched the race on the big screen TV in our room. I've even picked a team that I root for each race, Go Hazers!

If you're sitting their asking yourself is marble racing actually a thing or if I've just lost it now that there are no "real" sports on, please enjoy the videos below:
Did I forget to mention that they have a commentator that covers each race and event across the marble sports spectrum? His name is Greg Woods and he adds a certain professionalism to this thing that could be misconstrued as a child's activity. His work with the Jelle's Marble Runs team has turned this into an exciting thing to watch and I am here for it. Now that virtually all human competing sports have been suspended or cancelled, the world is in need of something to fill that void and marble racing could be that thing.

Update: The kids got some really cool marble run set after watching some of the races and events with me. We now spend hours putting different layouts together. They want to get more sets to combine with their current one. Of all of the toys they have, the Marble Genius Marble Run Super Set gets a ton of playtime.

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