Editor's note: This story has been updated from its original version, published in May 2015.
Once upon a time, the port-a-potties in the infield of Pimlico Race Course on Preakness day were lined up in long rows. At that same time, patrons could bring their own alcohol into the event, and they brought a lot of it.
This led to one of the most infamous traditions in the history of day drinking, one that ended in 2009 — the "Running of the Urinals" at the Preakness.
Video of this tradition began popping up on YouTube in the mid-2000s, right around the time camera phones became popular and widely available. It hit its peak around 2007 and became a sports Internet sensation. Among the infield crowd, it was a much bigger deal than the horse races taking place just a few feet away.
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Patrons — mostly highly intoxicated young men — would run atop the rows of port-a-potties while onlookers hurled beers at them. Some got through unscathed, while others went down hard. Large crowds would gather.
While there are always upper-class patrons casually sipping Black-Eyed Susans in the grandstand, the Preakness infield is where the action is. Don't confuse it with your traditional images of horse racing, like the ones the Kentucky Derby provides.
But the mayhem had to be slowed. In 2008, Pimlico officials began to strategically arrange the portable toilets to prevent this kind of debauchery. It curbed the long distance events, but it created something new — the broad jump.
Merely moving around some port-a-potties wasn't enough. Leading up to the 2009 Preakness, Pimlico announced spectators would no longer be allowed to bring their own beverages into the infield. The running of this gauntlet was a big reason for that. The people were not happy.
Videos that surfaced got national attention, and the Maryland Jockey Club thought it gave the Preakness a bad image. Although similar things had gone on for years, it wasn't publicly visible. What happened in Northwest Baltimore on the third Saturday each May stayed there.
The second jewel of the Triple Crown didn't get dubbed "The Freakness" for no reason, after all, and the track's B.Y.O.B. policy had a lot to do with that. Sleeveless bros and girls in flowery dresses alike would wheel in oversized coolers — sometimes even baby pools — filled to the brim with booze. They drank all day. They fought each other. They ran atop port-a-potties. The cleanup took at least 10 hours with a couple hundred people on the job tossing out everything from empty beer cans to shoes and purses.
Plenty of this goes on today, but forcing every patron to buy alcohol from the track changed it quite a bit. It still only costs $20 for bottomless beer throughout the day, but there are always lines to refill. There's no real opportunity for funneling or shotgunning, and the only liquor available is what you can manage to sneak in. No more coolers, which meant no more fun to some.
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The regulars displayed their disappointment in 2009, when Preakness attendance dropped about 40 percent. After being rebranded as "InfieldFest" in 2010 — complete with live musical acts, unlimited beer and a half-drunk, half-centaur mascot named Kegasus — attendance picked back up and set a record in 2012. The people are still drinking and the Preakness infield is still just a giant party, but it has calmed down some.
"It was kind of a bandage they had to pull off and rebuild it somehow," Maryland attorney and former politician Todd Schuler, who in 2009 helped introduce a bill to fight Pimlico's no-B.Y.O.B. policy, as well as keep the race in Baltimore, said by phone Thursday. "I mean, did you see the mascot they used after that?"
Kegasus' motto was "a 10-hour party to celebrate a two-minute race," so it's clear the organizers of the Preakness didn't want to completely change its identity, as Schuler indicated. It will never have the grace and eloquence of the Kentucky Derby, and most people know that. It's actually the complete opposite, which greatly appeals to many college-aged kids in the mid-Atlantic.
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"You'd stand on a cooler and watch girls take their clothes off, then you'd turn around and watch a fight, then you'd turn around and see the cops taking the shot at somebody," Schuler said. "It was the most insane atmosphere. It was as unsafe as could possibly be, and that was before they started running on the toilets."
He predates the toilet running era, but Schuler grew up in Baltimore with the Preakness and its debauchery. It was in full force well before it ever hit the Internet. He said he thinks videos of the running of the toilets had a lot to do with it, and added that supporting a B.Y.O.B. policy at the Preakness neither hurt nor helped his political standing.
"[The bill] was a populous play for the infield drinking crowd," he said with a laugh.
Very little video of the running of the toilets exists beyond 2008. This video from 2011 just doesn't pack the same bizarre punch the ones from several years prior do. There are no cans to hurl because all beer is served from taps into mugs, and most of the units are spaced out to prevent people from running atop them.
The Preakness is still a blast for many that enjoy this type of atmosphere. The booze hasn't stopped flowing. Sleeveless bros haven't stopped fighting. But the cleanup isn't nearly as bad as it was several years ago.
The running of the port-a-potties and its extinction has a lot to do with that. The debauchery is still there, but it's been slightly rebranded.