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PhotoTO: The Idiotarod, 2008

By Miles Storey

Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
The first Toronto running of the Idiotarod was held on Saturday, with six teams racing through checkpoints from Grange Park to Bellevue Square Park. The event, organized by Wero Creative, was a great success, with competitors braving torrential rain to reach the finish line with carts, if not sanity, intact.
More photos after the jump.


Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
The Sleepover teams relax before the race.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Organizers Robin and Adam watch the teams get ready, secretly wondering if any will make it to the finish line in one piece.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
The Mutha Truckers, the zombie team.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
And they’re off! Teams head for the first checkpoint.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Racing along College after a heavy downpour.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Teams crossing the finish line in Kensington Market.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Prizes for everyone!
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
The Idiotarod Toronto 2008 teams.
Idiotarod 08 by Miles Storey
All photos by Miles Storey.

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Comments

  • ariehsinger

    Once again brilliant Miles! Good thing someone was there to snap photos – I wasn’t able to make it out, and seeing the photos from the NYC one I wanted to see how it turned out. Cheers!

  • woowah

    Brilliant photos!

  • PickleToes

    Stolen shopping carts?

  • AdamSchwabe

    Borrowed?

  • PickleToes

    I might be more willing to accept that explanation had one of the shopping carts pictured in this article not been so sloppily painted orange. Assuming the original owner didn’t do this themselves, it seems unbelievable that someone would borrow the cart and vandalize it before giving it back; its an odd juxtaposition of activities that respect the property of others alongside ones that probably don’t.

  • Miles Storey

    Thanks Arieh and Woowah!

  • minou

    Relax PickleToes. I doubt that team painted their cart. Many stores paint their shopping carts to distinguish them from other stores’. I believe Home Depot’s carts are painted orange, just as No Frills’ shopping carts are yellow.

  • PickleToes

    Yeah, but not sloppily that you can clearly see bits of unpainted metal.

  • ZenScout

    Hey, PickleToes. Know what I do when I disagree with everything that’s written on a blog and can hardly (or in your case, can’t) resist the urge to express my outrage on every post? I look for one that I can enjoy a bit more. Here’s a suggestion for you:
    http://westernstandard.blogs.com/
    Unless *gasp* you’re looking to be outraged…

  • bbpsi

    Pickletoes, if you’re so concerned about it, save yourself a spot at the finish line bright and early next year so you can call the cops on all those shopping carts that [might be, maybe] stolen.

  • Weazel

    Here’s something you may want to consider Pickle: someone found a broken, abandoned cart, decided to fix it and use it for the race. In the spirit of reduce, reuse, recycle he now uses it in his garage as a mobile storage unit, among other things, much to his girlfriends chagrin. Then again thinking like that would mean you’d have to find something less obvious to complain about.

  • PickleToes

    ZenScout: I enjoy this blog, especially its focus. I only post to criticize, because after all, there’s no point posting something as trivial as “I agree”. So when you see something that I haven’t commented upon, you can assume its because I thought it was a great and truthful article. Other times I post to criticize the situation that the article describes, and not the article itself. But I really shouldn’t have to explain my posting habits, so I’ll stop.
    bbpsi: Shouldn’t everybody be concerned about a potential theft? Your post seems dangerously close to legitimizing such a crime.
    Weasel: To continue the obviousness theme maybe we should think upon some of the distinguishing factors of shopping carts. Particularly the fact that they’re almost always clearly marked with the store to which they belong. Your example isn’t just a case of finding abandoned property to which no owner can be found. Realistically it would be pretty easy to tell who owns the cart and where it should be returned to. While “reduce, reuse, recycle” is a venerable maxim, it doesn’t excuse requisitioning something you know belongs to somebody else.

  • rek

    Let’s stop feeding this troll.

  • PickleToes

    rek: When will you openly profess your love for me?

  • PickleToes

    P.S. I really wish you would stop, for lack of a better word, trolling my reputation. I know you don’t really like me, but if you don’t mind I’d rather people make conclusions about me through reading my posts instead of through your hate-mongering.
    If you believe I’m a troll then ignore me. Enjoy Torontoist as if I wasn’t even present. I do truly enjoy this website, and without any administrative action to remove me, I foresee that I’ll be here for a while.
    Somebody should give you an e-hug.

  • Joe Howell

    My only beef with you, PickleToes, is that your posting style isn’t nearly absurdist enough to warrant Shmorky’s avatar.
    Anyway, sweet photos, Miles. Were you the guy following the dudes in the first photo on bike?

  • rek

    The conclusion I came to about you through reading your posts is that you’re a troll.

  • PickleToes

    If that’s the conclusion that you made then fine, but do you really have to go around telling people to ignore me just because you don’t agree with my thoughts? Let people make their own judgements.

  • David Topping

    Seriously?
    If you think that PickleToes or anyone else is a troll, the best thing to do is just completely ignore them outright. Getting into an argument with someone you think is a troll, particularly over whether they are a troll or not, doesn’t really do anything other than derail (toot toot!) the comments train. The comments on Torontoist are, by and large, pretty great, so it’d be nice if they didn’t all devolve because one person sort of annoys some other people.

  • Weazel

    Honestly, do you expect people to fish broken carts out of park ditches, refurbish them, and drive them a solid 25 minutes to a store they think it might belong to every time they come across one? There are multiple stores that use green as their main colour and without proper markings, how are you to know which store it is based on a green flap in the child seat area? I agree that most carts do have distinguishing marks, but not all of them. My guess is you would have just left the cart there as an eye sore for the city to dispose of rather than give it a second life as a race cart and a third life as a storage unit.