Registration now open to get stupid at the tenth annual Idiotarod

Life is just full of stupid, everywhere you look. The thing is, most of it usually isn’t on purpose. So it’s nice when a bunch of people do something really really stupid on purpose, like shopping cart race the Idiotarod. Somehow, after ten years, it’s still kicking wheeling around, and if you want to be part of the decennial celebration, you can do that. You just need a shopping cart, some friends who are also stupid and a good team name.

Yes, registration is open for the tenth running of the Idiotarod, which is happening on Saturday, January 25. For the uninitiated, the Idiotarod is similar to Alaska’s Iditarod sled dog race, only instead of sled dogs, it’s teams of people pushing shopping carts, and usually dressing in ridiculous costumes. Because as long as you’re running a shopping cart through the city streets in the middle of winter, you may as well be styling.

The race is happening at noon on Saturday, and organizers the Department of Homeland Absurdity will release the route to anyone who registers. They haven’t said much else about the race, short of mentioning that “prizes, both monetary and sentimental” will be given out arbitrarily. So there’s that. If you want in, get some friends and a costume idea together, and shoot an email to idiotarodnyc [AT] yahoo.com by 11:59pm on Thursday. You’ll also need to bring five bucks each for a registration fee.

Team sizes don’t seem to be limited, but you probably want to hit a sweet spot of not too many people trying to push the cart all at once and not too few to do it quickly. Why not do it? You need something to distract you for the football-less weekend before the Super Bowl, and it ain’t gonna be the Pro Bowl.