About 10 years ago I realized that I had a special power. Nothing quite X-Men worthy but still something to write home about. I have the ability to come up with a completely ridiculous idea and then convince other people that it’s really a great idea and to go along with it. You may think that’s not really noteworthy but it was this power that help me make a film called “Terminator: The Musical?” (no I’m not kidding, it exists), create the first Repo! The Genetic Opera shadowcast in Nashville, TN and start what looks to become an annual event at Dragon*Con known as the “Race of the Tauntauns!”.

Yes, you read that correctly. Race of the Tauntauns. It’s essentially a sack race using sleeping bags that look like tauntauns from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Most are ones that have been purchased from thinkgeek.com but racers can also enter their own homemade ones as long as they are sleeping bags and still look like tauntauns. I came up with this idea after I finally bought one of these sleeping bags and then wondered if I could get anyone to do a sack race with me. The next logical step was to see if anyone wanted to race at Dragon*Con. After that it got put on the official schedule and ThinkGeek offered up prizes for the first three winners.

The first annual Race of the Tauntauns at Dragon*Con was a hit with 7 racers, a Wookie obstacle, a huge crowd and plenty of video taken of the race. It went so well that my friend who is con chair of a local geek convention in Nashville, Geek Media Expo (GMX), asked me to do a race here at the convention in October.

So now, go ahead and dispute my special power. After all, how many folks do you know who have managed to convince a bunch of people to hop a race track in $100 sleeping bags that look like a sci-fi creature avoiding ridiculous obstacles?

Written by: Elf Writer