On Sunday, March 27 at 2 p.m., five hundred Ashevillians dressed in farcical costumes will race down Riverside Drive pushing grocery carts filled with canned goods in the hopes of getting to Wedge Brewery first. No, these people are not homeless. Yes, they are lucid. In fact, they will all be giving back to the community. These people are all participants in the 2011 Asheville Idiotarod. The Idiotarod is an event help annually that is designed to help collect cans for MANNA food bank while having a blast.
The event is a spin-off of the Alaskan Idiotarod, but instead of dogs there are humans and instead of sled there are grocery carts. Along the course of the race, challenges are set up created to complete community service projects. The carts will be pushed by teams of five and the race allows certain types of sabotage, but nothing dangerous. One year, a fake roadblock was set up by participants disguised as officials who forced the other teams to sing a Britney Spears song before they were allowed to pass.
After the race is finished, special prizes will be given out at the “After Bash”. The awards include: The Mother Teresa Award, The Zoolander and The Chuck Norris Award. The dance celebration will be held at Asheville Pizza and Brewing and, like last year’s party, it is expected to get crazy.
The goal of the event is to total 2 tons of canned food for MANNA. In order to sign up for this day of amusement, you will need $20 per runner and at least fifteen cans in your cart.
