Cleverly costumed teams, each pushing a decked-out shopping cart, tore through wide swaths of Chinatown, Downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Gowanus yesterday for the 12th annual running of the legendary Idiotarod.
There were at least a dozen teams who survived the grueling, day-long journey from Seward Park to Gowanus Ballroom, an adventure that included lengthy sojourns at three local taverns along the way. Needless to say, there was lots of drinking and camaraderie involved, as well as a fair amount of friendly sabotage and gamesmanship.
At each checkpoint participants had to make the Idiot Labs officials happy by competing in ludicrous contests and tests of nonsensical acuity. Bribes were also expected and commonplace.
Pretty much everyone looked fabulous and had an excellent day, but a few standout teams would include:
- The Idiotrappist Monks, who transformed their cart into a working still, drinking and passing around their road-brew all afternoon. The monks, an international group of actual working scientists (that's actually true), won the Best Engineering trophy for their efforts.
- The Bright Young Things brought a electric dose of sex and glamour to the race, tearing around town on their horizontal Chrysler Building cart. The BYTs walked away with the Best Bribe award.
(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
- The absurdly named Mephitic Order of the Pungent One team, which everyone just called The Skunks, made a jug of foul-smelling liquid (concentrated fish sauce was involved) that they sprayed willy-nilly to make sure competitors kept their distance. It was truly horrible.
- Although their balloon didn't actually inflate, the Around the World in 80 Drinks crew made up for the equipment failure with an impeccable sense of elegance and style... until they started chugging maple syrup straight from the bottle.
- The Warholics Anonymous team pushed around a (Velvet Underground record cover) banana all day, blasting 80s tunes for some reason along the route. The Andys were possibly the largest squad, though that honor could have also gone to the pack of Elvises swarming around their Chapel O' Love cart.
- The Thomas the Train Wreck was pushed by a crew of fallen storybook idols, including the cocaine-junkie Blow White, a decrepit Peter Pan, and some sort of cow on day-long walk of shame. They also had a working grill under the hood, so it was burgers and sausages all around at each stop. For the completeness of their costume vision, the team won the coveted Best In Show trophy.
After the race everyone packed into Gowanus Ballroom to drink wine, receive glory and trophies (or not), and watch and cheer as their trusty steeds were crushed by the mighty Cart Guillotine.
Like everything else about Idiotarod, it was creative, elaborate, well organized, and all done simply for the love of fun.
