The Idiots Were Off And Running

No, It's Not Politics - 'Idiotarod 2006' Is A Shopping-Cart Race Over N.Y. Parks, Streets

(CBS) 
Teams also pushed to create a unique theme and outrageous style to win the Best in Show prize. Inspiration to rally a group around ranged from current events (the Supreme Court, the Pope mobile) to concepts (schaudenfreude, misconception) to the arts (Andy Warhol, “Brokeback Mountain”).

But to win, teams had other concerns. One was staying one step ahead of the police. After facing a $5,000 fine last year for leaving a precarious pile of discarded shopping carts behind them after the race, organizers were paranoid.

They originally wanted to start the race in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, but when police got wind of their plan, the organizers made a last-minute switch to Fort Green Park, another Brooklyn neighborhood.

Police were omnipresent at the checkpoints, but were no arrests or fines doled out this year, except tickets that went to Bar Back Mountain for rolling around a cart that had been converted into a full bar, complete with bottles that didn't fall over, said co-organizer Flaherty.

As the guerilla event grows each year, creativity seems to be flourishing.

“It’s more organized,” said John Tornatore-Pili, a freshman in college in Troy, N.Y., who ran last year. “And, there are a lot less pirates this year.”

Tell that to the Long John Silvers.

The pajama-wearing pirates were downtrodden by the second checkpoint after falling victim to Team Cobra’s fake checkpoint. Standing around their cart passing a thermos from pirate to pirate, Terry McBride,26, from Hoboken, N.J. tried to cheer the others up: “It’s all about winning the last leg. Let’s go!”

The fact that a shopping cart they swiped from a Target store was reclaimed by a cop five minutes later didn’t deter a group of alumna from the University of New Hampshire from competing, said team member Eileen Dunn of Delmar, N.Y.

They simply rigged up a cardboard box with masking-tape handles, explained their troubles to the judges and drug their box to the first checkpoint. But Cobra got them, too.

“We’re under the radar right now,” said Dunn of their competing after having their official papers swiped.

Those who couldn’t compete watched. Paul Celi was intrigued, but didn’t get a team organized quickly enough to enter.

“It’s tough to find other people with no dignity,” he said as he watched teams dance around while intermittently throwing bananas, lo mein noodles and chocolate pudding at a checkpoint on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

“It’s one of those things you wish you saw more of,” Celi said. “It’s a cross between Halloween and a food fight.”

The finish line at the East River Park Amphitheater in Manhattan was filled with jubilation. Another super team – really three teams of five – called Test Squad, danced around to Herbie Hancock-esq techno music blaring from their cart -- composed just for the event -- while all wearing matching blue jumpsuits, shouting to the beat, “We are from the future.”

“We probably finished close to last place,” said Sam Newman, a junior at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who belongs to the comedy troupe Happily Ever Laughter that organized Test Squad based on one of their skits.

“Yes. But we got to dance with foam bananas and heckle cops,” said teammate Ethan O’Hara, also in the troupe. “And that’s winning to me.”