Kansas vs. England: 34 women ready to compete in Liberal Pancake Day race

Nine Kansas women are expected to race Tuesday in the 65th running of the International Pancake Day Race against 25 women from Olney, England.

And they will be running with 2 inches of snow covering the ground.

“We have street crews out getting the streets in working order,” Janice Northerns, publicity chairwoman of the International Pancake Day, said Monday night.

In the past, Liberal city crews have used propane blowers and heaters to de-ice and dry the course before the run.

The race has evolved into one of the quirkiest of Kansas traditions involving women, skillets and pancakes.

In Olney, the race dates back to 1445 when, according to legend, a woman was using up cooking fats as she made pancakes. Fats are forbidden during Lent. The woman supposedly heard the church bells ringing, grabbed a scarf, and ran to the church with pancakes and skillet in hand.

When Time magazine did a feature on Olney’s race in 1950, Liberal challenged Olney to a friendly trans-Atlantic competition. It has been a rivalry since, and the event has turned into a four-day celebration in Liberal.

The race – a 415-yard, S-shaped course through downtown in Liberal – is always run at 11:55 a.m. on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Fat Tuesday.

Liberal leads with 36 wins to Olney’s 27. One year, the score didn’t count when a BBC television van blocked the course in England.

This story was originally published March 3, 2014 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Kansas vs. England: 34 women ready to compete in Liberal Pancake Day race."