This weekend was all about the idiotarod
which, if you don't know by now, is like alaska's iditarod race except instead of dogs pulling sleds, it's people with shopping carts, and instead of snowy trails, we run the streets of new york city. oh, and everyone gets dressed up, including the carts. so miss myrna organized a team, which we dubbed Little Red Running Hoods. pretty easy, costume-wise, though next year i would like to step it up (people really get into it). going in, i knew it would be a crazy, fun time, but i was a little nervous. there's lots of "sabotage," which means people throwing things at you, and throwing shit on the ground to make you slip. (carl declined participation with the excuse that this is a "a race for people with health insurance.") there was lots of slippery shit on the ground, but there was even more flour flying through the air, and at the finish line, dead, bloody fish (gross). but flour is surprisingly foul-smelling in vast quantities. and running in costume is still in fact running, it turns out. which, in 30-degree weather, tends to sear your lungs. or my lungs, at least. but yay exercise! it was still quite fun, and i could be convinced to do it again, though i suspect it might be even more enjoyable to be a judge, like jami and maura were, and have everyone kissing your ass and buying you drinks at the checkpoints. so the race went from greenpoint to long island city, over the pulaski bridge. i had no idea where the hell i was. we closed out the day and evening at LIC bar, a cute place in the middle of nowhere, where by the end of the night we had even decided to start a book club (little red reading club). what do you know? start the day with a red sweatshirt, end with a book club. i'll let you know how that goes.
i didn't really take very many pictures (it's hard to be a participant and a photographer), but there is of course plenty of coverage on flickr and youtube, not to mention gothamist. i really liked the mimes (sans cart), the ghostbuster team, the bill cosbys, the secret service, and the olde-timey people. but i'd probably give the best in show award, if it were up to me, to the chippendales. it was cold out there, and those boys were in their skivvies the whole time. best sabotage had to be the u.s. commandos' assault on the north koreans at the finish line. i heard the shitheads won, but the real results will be posted at cartsofbrooklyn.com soon. finally, i will say that the cops reportedly talked a big game in the beginning, saying that anyone off the sidewalks would be arrested, but in the end, despite the helicopters and phalanx of police vehicles, they did a decent job of both keeping the streets relatively clear (especially in deserted industrial areas) and letting everyone have their fun. some of them were even taking pictures.
if you click any of the links provided, i would recommend this one: an awesome video of the race in which yours truly can be seen running, in blue skirt, about nine seconds in, right after you see the cops on horseback. the little red running hoods came in 64th out of like 140+ teams. not bad!