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Early this morning at midnight, over 7,000 runners could be seen racing through the streets of Los Angeles as part of the 2nd annual Nike+ Human Race. Bringing over 140,000 participants worldwide in over 27 cities, the goal of the event was to celebrate runners and unite them globally in the earth’s largest one-day running event. In Los Angeles this meant starting and finishing at the Coliseum and running the 5 or 10K through the Figueroa Corridor and on streets just outside of the USC campus. One dollar of every entry fee was donated to USC Football Coach Pete Carroll’s philanthropy,A Better LA.
Along the way, music pumped up the athletes and projections on buildings of other Human Race events from cities like Seoul, Rome and New York motivated runners with themes of unity and inspiration. People emerged from their homes or sat in their windows to cheer as the joggers went by. Even the most jaded of security guards could be seen shooting photos with their cell phones and giving hi-fives to participants.
Many of the runners were trained using the Nike+ system and the company’s online coaching tools - a system which has gained an almost fanatic following with 2 million members worldwide.
The Nike+ Human Race was the very first organized running event for this writer/runner and it proved to be a humbling and invigorating experience. Jogging on a treadmill in a gym just doesn’t do it compared to this. You notice things on foot that you don’t when you drive by in your car and you’re granted safe access to areas one wouldn’t wander in the middle of the night. From the huge fraternity houses on USC’s Greek row to the makeshift cardboard shelters on the sidewalk, you witness Los Angeles in its desolation, in its celebration of human potential, and everything in between.
Races are still ongoing today in the rest of world. Collectively over 400,000 miles have been run so far.
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I ran this race on Friday, too. It was a lot of fun, though it was PACKED.
i ran on friday. the event was a blast but you're right, it was PACKED. i think some parts of the course could've been lit better, as it got to be a tad unpredictable. still, i would do it again next year.