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26th Annual High Heel Race
17th Street NW
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Racing Round Sandy
Hurricane postpones, but can't stop, D.C.'s 26th anniversary High Heel Race
Halloween night, 1986, a handful of drag queens made an impromptu bet that found them racing down 17th Street NW in pumps, wigs and all the rest. And with that, D.C.'s infamous High Heel Race was born – first taking place on subsequent Halloweens, but later changing to the Tuesday prior in order not to add to Halloween's commotion. The race, after all, delivers plenty of commotion all its own.
The race continued in this uninterrupted fashion for 25 years. Then came Sandy.
''It's normally rain or shine, no matter what,'' says Dave Perruzza, manager of JR.'s Bar & Grill, the de facto headquarters of the race that remains, technically, an orphan with no formal ownership. ''We've done it in the rain before – but we've never had a hurricane.''