New York City Triathalon Hosts Patriotic Underwear Run

The 2012 Aquaphor New York City Triathlon is sponsoring a patriotic underwear run on July 6th. The annual event is one of the most popular underwear runs in the world and is advertised as "just 500 strangers running around in their underwear."
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The 2012 Aquaphor New York City Triathlon presented by RCN is sponsoring a patriotic underwear run on July 6th at 7:30 p.m. The theme of this year's annual underwear run is "Celebrate America." Registrants are encouraged to "dress in a patriotic theme."

The annual event is one of the most popular underwear runs in the world and is a Guinness world record holder of "largest gathering of people wearing underwear." (There are actually quite a few gatherings which claim that title, and a few who have since recorded higher gatherings.)

The 1.7 mile run takes place in Central Park every year to raise awareness for the New York City Triathlon. It's advertised as having no "no transitions, no timing chips, no expensive race gear, just 500 strangers running around in their underwear."

The Naked Cowboy is this year's Grand Marshall.

John Korff, an organizer of the New York City Triathlon, says that the Underwear Run was developed as a way of generating pre-race buzz. "It's sort of hard to do lead-up events to a Triathlon that aren't triathlons themselves, so this presented itself as a good way to do that," Korff told The Underwear Expert. "We're in the media capital of the world, so triathletes running through Central Park in their underwear is going to get a ton of publicity."

"It's really all about fun. It's about how crazy and ridiculous we can get," he added. "We don't care about who finishes first or last."

The only rule for the run is no thongs, "but that's just because we think people don't look as good as they think they do in them," Korff stated. Historically, people have proved highly creative within those scant confines: Korff recounted how one man dressed up as a joint, with four friends carrying him over their heads, with a fifth in the lead hoisting a block of dry ice.

According to the website of the Triathalon, registration is currently sold out.

For more underwear events and news, visit The Underwear Expert, the go-to resource for men's underwear.

Photo: NYC Triathalon Archives

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