Cannon Lady Blasts Off to Start a 5K - Runner's World Newswire
Instead of a starting pistol or airhorn, the race began once professional cannonballer Jennifer Smith was successfully shot out of a cannon. “If you do it right it is a glorious, fun thing,” Smith, a. k. a. the “Cannon Lady,” said of flying out of the 27-foot cannon at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, reaching heights of 60 feet, and landing in a net 125 feet away. Smith grew up in a family dedicated to the human cannonball craft. Her father, Dave “Cannonball” Smith Sr. used to hold the world record for longest flight by a human cannonball—185 feet. Her brother, Dave “The Bullet” Smith broke the record in 2011 with a flight of 193 feet in Italy. But why a human cannonball to start a 5K. “There are so many 5Ks around that we wanted to do something different,” Howard Freeman, the race festival’s executive producer, said. Last year Freeman hired the five-person Flying Fools comedy high-diving show from Quebec to signal the race’s commencement. Smith, 41, of Bolivar, Missouri, first starred at the festival in 2011 and again in 2013. It’s still the only event where she has marked the start of a race. Now she is one of only three female human cannonballers in the world and has made more than 3,000 successful launches with only a few broken bones from awkward landings into the net. Smith travels across the continent with her husband, Rob Schneider, who operates the cannon, and their two children. Source: www.runnersworld.com
