These days, creative pop-up events are a fixture of the modern social scene, adding delightful, ephemeral energy to our streets, neighborhoods and retail districts. Yet even in this spirited era of pop-up dining, pop-up shopping, pop-up book release parties and even pop-up Santa races, the Cleveland Urban Iditarod still is pretty darn unique.

This new, one-of-a-kind event mimics the famous Alaskan Iditarod sled dog race, except that the dogs will be replaced by humans, the snow gear supplanted by wacky costumes, and the sleds are -- wait for it -- food-filled shopping carts.

In addition to the wacky race itself, there will be a talent contest, costume contest and pub crawl. The whole event is actually a food drive for Harvest for Hunger, with participants mushing 40 pounds of non-perishable items.

Here's how it works: Teams have five people and all "sleds" must be pulled a la dog sledding -- four people in front of the cart pulling with ropes and one person behind the cart steering it. Everyone must make it past the finish line.

Helmets are recommended, but stealing shopping carts is not. The YoYoSyndicate, the team of self-proclaimed "creative freaks" behind this "on-demand creative experience," is working on procuring a few reasonably-priced shopping carts.

Event organizer Aaron Erb says that the Cleveland Urban Iditarod and other YoYoSyndicate events offer ways to keep young, creative people in Cleveland. "These are creative events geared towards creative people," he says.

Think you got what it takes? Registering your team is only $45 until Feb. 24th.

Source: Aaron Erb
Writer; Lee Chilcote