Reliving Florence Ilott's Historic Westminster Bridge Sprint

This week we travel across the Atlantic, to a bustling bridge in England, to relive an epic race against time. This is the story of a young woman who made history by taking on a parliamentary bet over 8 decades ago.

Earlier this month, a British author by the name of Scott Pack took to twitter to share a story with the world. He released a series of 12 tweets, the first of which read, “I want to tell you about a remarkable woman that you almost certainly haven’t heard of”.

The woman in question was Florence Ilott, a promising British amateur sprinter. In 1934 Florence became the first person to run across London’s Westminster Bridge in the time that it took Big Ben to chime 12 noon. Several others, mainly men, had attempted this feat over the years. But it took a 19 year-old parliamentary tea room staff member to finally outrun the clock.