Chiditarod: Chicago’s Urban Shopping Cart Race.

Image: "Poultry in Motion" team, shot by Peter Holderness. Brad Flora says,

Last weekend, 500 Chicago hipsters, jocks, comedians, executives, bookworms and "colorful personalities" competed in a five-mile shopping cart race through the streets of Chicago. Dressed in lavish costumes, they pulled their carts, dog sled-style down sidewalks and through traffic, collecting canned goods for charity as they went and always looking for opportunities to sabotage their opponents. It's called the Chiditarod and I sent 10 reporters with hand held cameras to embed with specific teams and capture their races.

Link (main page is Flash-based)

[#1 posted by camerondeyhle , March 7, 2008 9:16 AM]

That image makes me dizzy. Not being funny. I had a strange feeling and then the white background of this site started turning a light purple. Any other readers feeling the same?

[#2 posted by thievedrelic , March 7, 2008 9:22 AM]

This iditarod event is also notable in Portland, OR, though admittedly on a smaller scale.
Still, some of the themes are about as clever as one can get with a shopping cart and a mind clouded by boozing (I believe one of the assumptions here is that you will be as sauced as possible whilst you throttle around)~

http://picasaweb.google.com/Zind4gi/UrbanIditarod2008

[#3 posted by Talia , March 7, 2008 9:28 AM]

NYC did this in January, the Idiotarod. :)

http://www.cartsofbrooklyn.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gothamistllc/sets/72157603798580084/

[#4 posted by Marshall , March 7, 2008 9:40 AM]

The LA one recently got massively shut down by the cops.

http://www.yovenice.com/2008/03/01/la-urban-iditarod-update/

[#5 posted by kulervo , March 7, 2008 10:04 AM]

I would object to being called a hipster, but I think colorful personality is fair.

Loads of fun as always. Loads more photos up on flickr.
http://flickr.com/search/?q=chiditarod+2008&s=rec

Main Chiditard at www.chiditarod.org

[#6 posted by dallas , March 7, 2008 10:38 AM]

New York has actually been doing this for 5 years. The official website is great and has tons of information: http://www.cartsofbrooklyn.com/

This especially hard in New York City where regular grocery stores with easily steal-able shopping carts are a rarity.

[#7 posted by bflora , March 7, 2008 11:10 AM]

We're working on bringing the videos to the fore on the flash ap....

Also, BoingBoing, the link to Peter Holderness' photography page appears to be broken. He can be found at http://www.peterholderness.com

[#8 posted by Chiditarod Chicago , March 7, 2008 11:36 AM]

The Chiditarod website can be found at http://www.chiditarod.org.

Mush.

[#9 posted by Alexis , March 7, 2008 12:58 PM]

There's one in San Francisco too. This year it was a pretty small event, but here's some photos from the 2006 one:

http://laughingsquid.com/urban-iditarod-2006-photos/

[#10 posted by loveable_rogue , March 8, 2008 9:12 PM]

We saw part of DC's today. It was pretty cool.