Why Walking on Legos Hurts More Than Walking on Fire or Ice

upstart writes:

Why Walking on Legos Hurts More Than Walking on Fire or Ice:

In 2006, Scott Bell earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-ever barefoot walk over hot coals-250 feet of glowing hot embers, at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Eight months later, he smashed that record with another fire-walk, this time 326 feet.

Now, he runs an events company in the United Kingdom. guiding other people over hot coals and the occasional bed of broken glass as part of corporate team-building exercises and charity events. But walking just six-and-a-half feet over 2,000 Lego pieces? Bell usually gets someone else on his team to do it.

"Out of the three that I do on a regular basis, it's before I step on the Lego that I think 'Oh, this is going to be a bit uncomfortable,'" he says, laughing.

Lego walking is increasingly popular at charity events, Lego-themed events, team-building workshops, on YouTube, and even in cabaret sideshow acts. It is exactly what it sounds like: stepping barefoot on a pile or path of Legos, usually of all different sizes. But unlike fire-walking or even glass-walking, walking over a bunch of Legos actually does hurt. Why? And an even better question-what do we get out of it?

[...] But the first intentional Lego walks started to pop up on YouTube about four years ago. In June 2014, a Portland, Maine, video store ran a promotion: Brave the 12-foot-long "Lego Firewalk" and get The Lego Movie at half-price. The promotion lasted only an hour and a few dozen people, including kids, did it, but Star Trek's George Takei posted a picture of the Firewalk and a link to the store, Bull Moose, on his Facebook page. Within a few days, the picture had earned more than 186,000 likes and was shared more than 76,600 times (four years later, that figure had ballooned to 257,000 likes and 150,000 shares).

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