After a few days of reflection and recovery, I think I’m able to do a proper Chiditarod recap. It felt like we were competing in a million different categories this year, so there’s a lot to discuss.

Our cart- Where to begin? In my humble opinion, it’s the best cart that has ever been in Chiditarod, and I’m not sure it will ever be surpassed. I don’t think we could have done an AT-AT any better than we did, and I don’t think we could have had a more awesome theme than Star Wars, so there you go. Comments on race day ranged from “That’s the best cart this year” to “That’s the GREATEST THING I’ve ever seen.” I still sort of can’t believe we pulled it off. Big ups to Ryan for the extra time he spent on it. The snowspeeder was also a nice touch. Oh, and is your mind not blown yet? It dispensed beer.

The costumes: I’ve had the privilege of dressing as Abe Lincoln and Goose in previous years, but this year I got to live out a childhood dream of being Han Solo. I thought I was very smart for having a costume that included a parka, but the weather was so nice that I spent most of the day in Han’s jacket-of-many-pockets that my mom made. Jeff, Ryan, and Rhonda all knocked it out of the park with their rebel uniforms, but the crowd favorite and most photographed was probably Bill as General Veers. And rightfully so. Something about that helmet was just hilarious.

Our overall presentation was enough to bring home the Bike Marshall’s Choice award. The Bike Marshalls ride along the race route and enforce rules, help lost teams, etc, and we apparently won them over with our ambitious vision, sportsmanship, attention to detail, and shots of whiskey.

The Karaoke- I suggested that a karaoke contest be included in this year’s competition and the organizers agreed and ran with it. Rhonda had the idea of doing the Bill Murray lounge version of the Star Wars theme song, which was a great because the song was a total crowd pleaser and also since it was he idea, we made her perform it. The judges first gave us a perfect 10, then added a zero to make it a beyond-perfect 100. The score held up and we ended up winning Best Karaoke. We also performed the Imperial March for the judges at another stop, the way I believe John Williams intended it, on kazoos.

As you probably noticed if you’re friends with any of the team members on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, we spent the weeks leading up to the race harassing you raising money online for the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. This was the first year that Chiditarod offered an online venue to accept cash donations in addition to the non-perishable food items that each team collected and donated on race day. We were all blown away by the response from our supporters. Our original goal was $500, and we were able to raise $1,350. This was enough to take home the Best In Fundraising award. We donated the prize money from our biggest award (more on that later) back to the cause as well, so the final tally was actually $1,500- three times our original goal! I’m really proud that our friends and families (some of whom showed up on race day sporting Action-Squad gear) totally rocked the house and made a difference on behalf of such a worthy cause.

The one award that we chase every year and did not bring home was Best In Show. Having won it last year with the Bill and Ted cart, the organizers saw fit to give us an award with a broader scope. We received the final award of the night: the Spirit of Chiditarod award. All in all, it seemed fitting.

Watch this space for a special video of our day by Jacob Nelson of the AV Club’s Chicago Blog. He did the awesome Squad preview video that I posted previously.

Jeff’s pics here.