Idiotarod XXIII
On Saturday, January 31, 2026, the 23rd edition of Idiotarod returned to the streets of New York City. The racers met at the first location, Cooper Park in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and moved on to three checkpoints before reaching the finale at The Deep End in Ridgewood, Queens. During this year’s Idiotarod, I got to witness a chicken literally cross a road.
This year about 30 teams competed in a race on the streets of New York City with a secret route for prizes, glory, and fun. Each team creates a team theme, a game, bribes, and food and drink items, and some teams engage in sabotage (I was a victim of two separate sabotage incidents; a strap of my tote bag was zip tied by a member of Cryptid Ziptids, and someone tied rope around my feet as I was explaining Idiotarod’s whole deal to a friend who attended her very first Idiotarod.
On Saturday morning, the starting location of Cooper Park was announced, which was the same starting place as last year. The teams gathered surrounded by snow and ice at Cooper Park and departed the park to head to Emblem, the first checkpoint, also located in East Williamsburg. Due to last weekend’s snow storm, traveling with large carts was difficult and many teams opted to push their creative carts in the street with traffic as many of the sidewalks were still covered in snow and ice and only small paths were cleared. The cold weather was wildly different than 2025, where it was warm enough for one team to have wrestling as their game. In 2026, one team turned their cart into a sauna (The Finnish Line), and another converted theirs to a Hot Tub (Hot Tub Crime Machine), incorporating heat into their theme which was a brilliant decision and made their carts very popular with other participants and judges, with The Finnish Line winning Best Cart and Hot Tub Crime Machine being awarded Best Hospitality. There was a team who referenced the troubled venue Brooklyn Mirage, which will be demolished soon, with one of their members acting as the venue’s security, and others acting as construction crew. The winners of Best in Show, Mighty Morphing Party Rangers, combined their carts to make a giant structure at each location, and also changed themselves each time too (at the start, they were the party rangers, then at checkpoint one, they became flower orphans, offering handmade paper flowers to people and feared being beaten physically).
The second checkpoint was in Bushwick at Fine Time. From there, the teams headed to the third checkpoint, Bar Cornelia in the same neighborhood. The finale was hosted by The Deep End, where the winners were announced, all teams were celebrated, and all carts were destroyed (and cleaned up afterwards).
As I did last year, I left the race early to head home (since the first two locations were in my neighborhood, I opted to walk home and warm up) but I loved my time spent at Idiotarod again, despite the very cold weather. I shot a few images on 35mm film and those will be added to the gallery once I get the scans back from the lab.
This year’s edition was graced by the presence of Tom Kramer, who was given the title of Celebrity Judge, as he is the co-founder of the Urban Iditarod, which began in San Francisco 30 years ago. It was his first time visiting NYC for our Idiotarod and was impressed by the participating team’s creativity and joy it brought to all involved and those who happened to witness the race on the streets, even though some people thought there was a costume party going on.
Results of Idiotarod XXII on Saturday, January 31, 2026
BEST IN SHOW: Mighty Morphing Party Rangers
BEST COSTUMES: Cryptid Ziptids
BEST CART: The Finnish Line
BEST BRIBERY: Reptile Dysfunction
BEST CHECKPOINT: Checkpoint #1 at Emblem
BEST HOSPITALITY/STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: Hot Tub Crime Machine
BEST TEMPTATION: Yes Today Satan
BEST POTENTIAL FORESHADOWING: Body Count
MOST HR VIOLATIONS: TNA Industries Annual XMAS Holiday Party 1982
NAUTICAL NIGHTMARE: Sharkcuterie
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Party Goat, Chicken Little News Network
Additional Idiotarod posts from prior years can be found via the Idiotarod tag