Geekanerd Goes Idiotaroddin'

Over the weekend, over three hundred teams of five participated in New York's infamous shopping cart race, The Idiotarod. A few of the G'nerd editors raced for the first time this year, and I don't think we did too terribly if I do say so myself. The race is completely unlicensed by any civic organization, and the general mood is indeed of uninhibited idiocy, in the form of garish costumes, sabotage, and lots of thrown food. Some noteworthy geek-themed carts included a Mario Kart, an Oregon Trail wagon, the Indiana Jones crew with Giant Bolder, and the DeLorean (on spotting the team finally making their way to the finish line - G'nerd: "Why didn't you use time-travel to win the race?" Doc:"We did, but we went the wrong way".)

A crapload of photos after the jump...
The race began in Chinatown near the FDR highway and ended in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood, coming in at just over six miles. This meant the first leg of the race was a test of endurance as the teams funneled into the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge, for a long uninterrupted drag, broken up only occasionally by flying food substances and Ben Hur style jockeying for position.
Geekanerd went with a New York coffee cart theme, featuring a coffee proprietor (that's AHR in the red apron and hat, having obviously suffered some sort of injury that caused her to fall behind) and various NYC workers. Not pictured is Albo, who went as a doctor and is too fast to even stay in the picture.
C'mon, they look exactly the same! Our cart featured actual hot coffee and donuts, which were used to bribe judges with little effect. This is our team losing a tug-of-war, because we're a bunch of weakanerds. There were a bunch of clever teams, including:
The Mushroom Kingdom!
Lego Men!
With stackable heads! Just like real life!
Teen Wolf!
Q-Tips!
A Clockwork Orange!
Wrestlemania!
Indiana Jones! (With Juno close behind.)
Staten Island Ninjas!
Danger Zone! (These guys won Best in Show.)
The Hair Cult for Men! (These guys were slinging hairy Vaseline at people... Very gross.)
Scooby Doo!
Double Dare!
Cobra! (The hosts of this year's Idiotarod.)
Oregon Trail! (Probly my fave.)
Internet Memes! (I'm ashamed to say I can only identify 2.5 of these references.)
Kool Aid!If one word could describe this event, it would be MESSY. Just look at that wake of goo. There was some serious fury from Red Hook residents on the official Carts of Brooklyn messageboard, although in fairness to the organizers (if not the hedonistic participants), the Cobra organizers did make an honest attempt to clean up in the days that followed, even hiring salvage company to take away the abandoned carts (though according to this post, the salvagers turned down the job on-site, though the picture below certainly proves some sort of take-away effort)
Most photos were taken from the Idiotarod 2008 Flickr Pool.