The time penalties can help you out, though, because the top prize goes not to the team that crosses the finish line first, but to the one that finishes in the exact middle of the pack.

“Everyone wants to win the Grand East Coast National Mediocre Champion award, but it’s impossible to get on purpose,” says Jill Feasley, whose Takoma Park-based team has won it twice. “I love it. It subverts the typical competitive ideas about a race. It’s really all about creativity and having fun.”

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3 Contraptions to look out for

The theme of this year’s race is “food,” though the 30 or so teams (most of which are from the D.C. and Baltimore area) can interpret that as loosely as they’d like. Here are a few of the contenders.

Petal to the Metal

This giant flower basket, powered by six people, rests on two tandem bikes welded together with two normal bikes. The flowers are made of nylon stocking stretched over wire and affixed to pool noodles, and the basket is made of wood paneling and PVC pipes, says team leader Jill Feasley, 51, a nonprofit manager who lives in Takoma Park, Md.

Bribes on board: Balloon flowers

Sock puppet: “We’ll be carrying a little basket of beloved old toys,” she says.

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Holy Mackerel

This 150-pound aquatic-themed contraption consists of two bikes lashed together and a coral reef diorama teeming with plastic-bottle fish. It’s powered by two peddlers and will stay afloat — hopefully — with the assistance of large, empty plastic bottles.

Bribes on board: “We’ll be handing out soggy tuna fish sandwiches,” says team leader Chris Leonberg, 33, a D.C.-based architect.

Sock puppet: “I think it’s going to be an octopus,” he says.

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Australian Cold Cut Sub

This 4,000-pound sandwich rests on a chassis made of eight bicycles geared together by way of a truck transmission. The meat, cheese and tomatoes are made of corrugated plastic. It will carry eight cyclists, a driver and any number of team members’ children — “free-riders” who can garner teams extra points. “We do not go very fast,” says team leader David Hess, 52, a Baltimore-based metal sculptor.

Bribes on board: Sandwich-shop coupons

Sock puppet: A big pickle

Where to see the action