IDIOTAROD 2006

(...And they're OFF!!)

The Idiotarod. The urban version of the famous dogsled race held anually in Alaska. Except that in this IDIOTarod the sleds are replaced by shopping carts, dogs replaced by people dressed in wild costumes, and snow replaced by the streets of NYC. Teams of five negotiate their carts for 5 miles from Brooklyn to Manhattan with checkpoints in between and plenty of "sabotage" throughout. No set course, no aid stations, just get to the checkpoints and finish using the roads. I don't even know if I can write something here that can really do this incredible event justice, but I'll try...

(On the way to Checkpoint 1)

Its not easy trying to "borrow" a shopping cart, or even find one for that matter on a Saturday in Brooklyn. Alot of security guards watching the doors of stores for any hint of a cart walking out of the premises, and we didn't know where the hell anything was...we're from D.C!! Luckily, after an hour of searching we were able to bribe an organic foods place to let us rent one at 7 bucks an hour. I know, a little pricey...but we were desperate. No cart = no race. Next time, we'll be sure to grab one locally and take it up there. It would be SO much easier, and we'd have more time to decorate and fashion it to our liking.

(Cops showed up in force, but luckily didn't shut it down!)

Once we had the cart in our possession we motored over to the start where one by one other teams were rolling in. So many great costumes, and themes. Some of the more memorable ones included "The Five Horsemen of the Apocolypse", "The Mayo Clinic" who proceeded to throw mayonnaise on everyone as sabotage throughout the race, a team with a HUGE leg, smurfs, lots of hospital themed teams, and many many more crazy costumes. We chose to go with Amish. Beards, staw hats, suspenders, running shoes...it was a thing of beauty.

(Sabotage going down in the streets of Brooklyn, love it!)

Bananas, banana peels, cooking oil, mayonnaise, eggs, water balloons, flour, chocolate pudding. At some point during the race I was hit with each of those items...sometimes multiple times. What a mess, but its all part of the fun.

(Headed to the Manhattan pedestrian path.)

So, as I said before the race started in Brooklyn in a random park at the top of these long stairs. The start was mayhem as everyone tried to carry their steeds down as fast as possible...many carts were tipped over and precious "supplies" (i.e. Alcohol) were lost. We continued to an area known as DUMBO which stands for something like Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass...this is where the first serious sabotage event took place. Apparently someone had set up a fake checkpoint right before the final turn and was taking teams time cards...thinking this was it teams started hanging out here rather than continuing on to the ACTUAL checkpoint. ALOT of confusion ensued, and scorecards were lost. It was pretty funny when we realized we had been had...you honestly couldn't believe a thing anyone said. CHAOS!! After making it to the first stop, we then continued up the road to get on the Manhattan Bridge pedestrian path. Hah, what a scene it was running on this bridge across the water with all the other teams, not something you experience every day...

(To the bridge!!!) (And across it...)

Once over into Manhattan, we had a nice jaunt through the center of Chinatown. All the looks we got from passerbys and tourists were classic. More than worth the price of admission ($5/person). Everyone just had a look of amazement, confussion, and bewilderment. They didn't know what the f' was goin on! Finally we made it to checkpoint 2, where we were plastered with more mayo by the Mayo Clinic team, and waited for the next set of directions. Quickly we regrouped and were outta there once we got the OK from the officials to proceed on to the finish. We didn't know where in the hell we were going so luckily we saw a team ahead and tracked them over and across the FDR parkway and into what I think was the Battery Park along the water. A little bit further and we crossed the finish at some random performance stage in a solid 8th place(but it wasn't really about what place we finished anyways). The party began shortly there-after...


(Rockin' out at the finish)

So there you have it, the 3rd annual 2006 Idiotarod. Random, chaotic, adventurous(??). What a blast, though...perhaps another showing next year?! We'll see...

I'm getting my own pictures developed and will be sure to post them up as soon as I get them on disk.

Big shout out to Caroline for housing myself and teammates for a couple nights on such short notice, too. Life saver!


Good Song: We Are Scientists - This Scene is Dead