Rough Draft

Urban Iditarod

Last Saturday I ran in the Urban Iditarod. The Iditarod is a dog sled race across Alaska and the Urban Iditarod is much the same...only it takes place over a rough, four mile stretch of urban streets in San Francisco with shopping carts full of beverages being pulled by people.

My co-worker, Mike, has run the past couple years and happened to mention it at lunch one day so a few of us decided to join his team, Christopher Walken's Dogs of War. I also invited my roommate Andrew along (seeing as he's a runner, and 3 year champion of the Beer Mile back at Case).

Aside from pictures of previous years, I wasn't sure what to expect. Andrew, Iroro, and I arrived around 11:45 and found the alley just behind the 5th and Mission garage where people were beginning to line up. The best cart of the early arrivals was without a doubt the pirates who also had a boom box blasting "Yo, ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" along with a slew of 80's songs. Other interesting themes included the Ghostbusters (who walked down the street to much applause), Scooby Doo, and a cart done up as a hot dog stand.

The race itself was a lot of fun. Though it was probably a bad idea to let Andrew (who's run in the Boston Marathon) set the pace of the cart. Impressively, Iroro kept up with him the entire way. Mike and I kept pace for the first few legs, but after that we'd only make it about half a leg before dropping back and letting Andrew and Iroro runaway with the cart.

The race took just about an hour to complete, with four 5-10 minute pit stops along the way. The race ended at The Cannery, which is just outside Fort Mason. We hung out there for a while, and Mike got his picture taken with Frank Chu. It was quite a fun afternoon. You can fully expect Chritopher Walken's Dogs of War to return next year.

You can see all the pictures Andrew took of our team and the race here.