Idiotarod

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Costumed participants in the Urban Idiotarod race over the Burnside Bridge in shopping carts Portland Urban Iditarod.jpg
Costumed participants in the Urban Idiotarod race over the Burnside Bridge in shopping carts

The Idiotarod is a shopping cart race in which teams of five or more "idiots" with a (sometimes modified) grocery store shopping cart run through the streets of a major metropolitan area. The carts are usually themed and feature people in costumes. The races are fun competitions where sabotage, costume, and presentation, and other efforts are rewarded; some cities offer a "Best in Show" prize. [1] Sabotage, such as tripping competitors, throwing marbles or large obstacles in their paths, and the spreading of misinformation such as false route information, were common in the early years. A push for "leave no trace" actions has been promoted recently.

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The Idiotarod is named after the Iditarod, a 1,000 mile dog-sledding race in Alaska.

Idiotarods have taken place in Ann Arbor, Asheville, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Iowa City, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Washington, D.C., though the original race was founded in San Francisco in 1994 as the "Urban Iditarod". [2]

Portland, Oregon

Team "Quest for Fire" runs the idiotarod in 2008 with a propane fire burning in their cart Portland Urban Iditarod 2008 - cavemen.png
Team "Quest for Fire" runs the idiotarod in 2008 with a propane fire burning in their cart
Team "Chickenhead" competes in the 2008 idiotarod Portland Urban Iditarod 2008.png
Team "Chickenhead" competes in the 2008 idiotarod

The Portland Urban Iditarod, which began in March 2001, [4] runs through a course over four miles through downtown Portland, Oregon. [3] [5] This race occurs on the first Saturday of March, [3] the same date as the actual Alaskan Iditarod. [6] [1] Racers wear "absurd" [6] costumes, including Spanish bullfighters and diaper-wearing astronauts, [7] and make stops at pubs and bars along the way. [4] There are no winners or losers in the Portland event. [3]

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago's Urban Iditarod, called the Chiditarod, has been held annually on the first Saturday in March since 2006. Historically the race has occurred in and around the Chicago neighborhood of West Town. Much like other Urban Iditarods, a Chiditarod team includes 5 participants: 4 dawgs and a musher. Teams are required to use a regular shopping cart and are not allowed to modify the cart's original caster wheels. Beyond this limitation, teams are encouraged to take artistic liberties with their carts and participants often decorate their carts in highly creative ways and dress in costume to match their team's theme. Like a traditional race, teams compete to finish the course in as little time as possible, while making designated stops at checkpoints along the course. Participating teams are allowed and even encouraged to sabotage each other in order to gain advantage but most teams engage in sabotage merely for bragging rights. In the spirit of radical inclusion, the Chiditarod organizers hand out a number of awards in a variety of categories giving participants the freedom to compete in the fields they are best suited for.

The landmark of the Chiditarod is the event's charitable aspect. Billing itself as "Probably the world's largest mobile food drive," the Chiditarod plays an important role in helping raise foods for Chicago's food depositories, where in teams were asked to donate a minimum amount of high protein, non perishable food items. Racers also raise funds to help solve hunger issues with all funds directed to community grants programs that are finding new ways to solve food insecurities.

Another notable innovation is the organization's approach to self-policing. In an effort to keep all participants safe throughout the course, the Chiditarod deploys bike marshals who act as roaming course deputies: resolving disputes between teams, mitigating destructive sabotage, safeguarding participant conduct, and lending a helping hand when necessary.

Trademark claim

In 2014, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sent a cease-and-desist order to Idiotarod NYC, asserting that the name "Idiotarod" infringed its trademark in "Iditarod." [8] [9] Idiotarod NYC characterized the letter as "frivolous threats of legal action", but renamed the event to "Idiotarodorama NYC (aka 'The Desistarod')". [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is an annual long-distance sled dog race run in early March from Anchorage to Nome, entirely within the US state of Alaska. Mushers and a team of 14 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 8–15 days or more. The Iditarod began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams but evolved into today's highly competitive race.

Sled dog racing

Sled dog racing is a winter dog sport most popular in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and some European countries. It involves the timed competition of teams of sled dogs that pull a sled with the dog driver or musher standing on the runners. The team completing the marked course in the least time is judged the winner.

Susan Butcher American dog musher (1954–2006)

Susan Howlet Butcher was an American dog musher, noteworthy as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years. She is commemorated in Alaska by the Susan Butcher Day.

Martin Buser

Martin Buser is a champion of sled dog racing.

Wok racing

Wok racing is a sport developed by the German TV host and entertainer Stefan Raab: Modified woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsleigh track. There are competitions for one-person woksleds and four-person woksleds, the latter using four woks per sled.

Zoobomb Weekly bicycling activity in Portland, Oregon, United States

Zoobomb is a weekly bicycling activity in Portland, Oregon, United States during which participants ride bicycles rapidly downhill in the city's West Hills. Zoobomb began in 2002.

Yukon Quest Sled dog race from Alaska to Yukon

The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and the limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the world", or even the "toughest race in the world"—"even tougher, more selective and less attention-seeking than the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." The originator envisioned it as "a race so rugged that only purists would participate."

Jeff King (mushing) American sled dog racer

Jeff King is an American musher and sled dog racer.

Robert Sørlie

Robert Walter Sørlie, commonly "Sorlie" in English, is a two-time Iditarod champion Norwegian dog musher and dog sled racer from Hurdal. Together with Kjetil Backen and his nephew, Bjørnar Andersen, he forms "Team Norway", the most well-known Norwegian dog mushing team. In 2003, he became the only non-American after Martin Buser to win the 1,049-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska, U.S. He won it again in 2005.

Emmitt Peters Sr. the "Yukon Fox", was an Alaskan American hunter, fisher, trapper, and dog musher. The last rookie to win the 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, he and his lead dogs Nugget and Digger shattered the previous speed record by almost six days.

John Baker (musher) American dog musher, pilot, and motivational speaker

John Quniaq Baker is self-employed American dog musher, pilot and motivational speaker of Inupiat descent who consistently places in the top 10 during the long distance Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Baker won the 2011 Iditarod with a finish time of 8 Days 19 Hours 46 Minutes 39 Seconds.

Lance Mackey

Lance Mackey is an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska, a four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest, four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and cancer survivor.

Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth was a 2008 American reality television miniseries on the Discovery Channel that featured the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.

The Alpirod is a defunct 1,000 kilometres (621 mi) sled dog stage race in Southern Europe. Its name comes from a combination of the Alps, where the race took place, and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, upon which the race was based. The competition consisted of a 14-day stage race in 11 cities in four countries: Italy, Germany, Austria and France. The competition consisted of multiple short races separated by evening breaks, similar to cycling's Tour de France. At the time, it was the largest sled dog race outside North America. The race was organized by Armen Khatchikian, an Italian Iditarod competitor who hoped to bring a form of that race to Europe. It first took place in 1988, and the inaugural race was won by Alaska racer Joe Runyan. In 1989, the race was won by Kathy Swenson. She was the first woman to win the race. In 1990, Alaskan Roxy Wright Champaine won the race, becoming the third American winner. In 1992, the race was won by Nenana, Alaska musher Jacques Philip, who went on to win the race three times.

Jamaica Dogsled Team

The Jamaica Dogsled Team is a team of sled dogs and mushers headquartered at Chukka Caribbean Adventures in Ocho Rios, located in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. The dog team is made up of strays rescued by the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and offers dryland dogsled rides, along with the adventure center's other outdoor experiences. In addition, the two mushers Newton Marshall and Damion Robb, compete in sled races throughout the US and Canada, using leased dog teams. Country music singer Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is the team's major sponsor.

Dallas Seavey

Dallas Seavey is an American dog musher, one of only two mushers to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U.S. state of Alaska five times: in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2021. In 2018 and 2019, Seavey also competed in Europe’s longest sled dog race, Norway’s Finnmarkslopet.

Aliy Zirkle American champion of sled dog racing (born 1970)

Aliy Zirkle is an American champion of sled dog racing.

John Suter is a retired American sled dog racer most notable for having mushed standard poodles in various sled races, including the Iditarod. His use of poodles led directly to new and current Iditarod rules that stipulate what breeds of dogs are qualified to race.

Chiditarod

CHIditarod is a Chicago-based shopping cart-race and food drive. Attendees typically dress in costume. It is managed by the 501(c)(3) non-profit CHIditarod Foundation. The name is a play on words combining Chicago and Iditarod, a dogsled race. CHIditarod is not related to the Iditarod in any way.

References

  1. 1 2 Barrett, Joe, On Brooklyn Streets, Shopping Carts Roll In a Renegade Derby. The Wall Street Journal, 2 February 2006. Accessed 9 March 2008.
  2. ↑ Tudor, Silke (7 March 2001). "S.F. Mush". SFWeekly . Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Foyston, John. Cart-pulling racers mush through town. The Oregonian, 2 March 2008. Accessed 9 March 2008.
  4. 1 2 Your guide to the next 72 hours. The Portland Tribune, 4 March 2005. Accessed 9 March 2008.
  5. ↑ Portland Urban Iditarod - supplies. Accessed 9 March 2008. Archived January 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  6. 1 2 Tewksbury, Drew, Gone to the Dogs Archived 2009-02-14 at the Wayback Machine . Los Angeles CityBeat, 5 April 2007. Accessed 9 March 2008.
  7. ↑ Associated Press, Oregon bill aims to rid the shopping cart blight. 19 March 2007. Accessed 9 March 2008.
  8. ↑ Bleier, Evan (January 27, 2014). "Iditarod sends 'Idiotarod' a cease-and-desist letter". UPI. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ Dawson, Jon S (January 21, 2014). "Cease And Desist Demand". Letter to Idiotarod NYC. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  10. ↑ Seelie, Tod (January 24, 2014). "Idiotarod Forced To Change Name, Still Happening Saturday". The Gothamist. Archived from the original on January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
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