Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Nike Human Race is Back for 2009

It turns out Nike is returning for a second edition of its worldwide Nike Human Race 10K this year, and the date is October 24th. With August nearing an end and no word of the event, I'd been assuming Nike wasn't holding the event, which was a combination of a series of formal races around the world and many more run-your-own-10K individual events.

Here is an excerpt from a Nike press release (from TriathlonTraining.net):

"Nike-hosted Human Race events will be held in more than 24 cities from New York City to Los Angeles, Buenos Aires to Rome. Through Nikeplus.com, however, every city and every road can become a race day course. By combining the virtual running world with the physical, the Nike+ Human Race is open to anyone, anywhere. Race registration opens August 18 on Nikeplus.com. By registering, runners will be able to participate in one of several Nike-hosted events or choose to run where they are on race day."

This year's Human Race seems to be scaled down significantly from last year's. And of the 24 cities, only three are in the United States: New York City; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles.

The 2009 New York Nike Human Race takes place in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, starting at 8 a.m. This has got to be an improvement over last year's chaotic race on Randall's Island, which featured running across sites that were under construction and, at one point, coming to a complete halt as runners hit a bottleneck waiting to run over a narrow bridge.

Maybe Nike realized it bit off more than it could chew last year and decided to pare down this year's events for logistical as well as economic issues.

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