Ordinarily, Cleveland weather is unpredictable. We may be in a deep freeze now, but this time of year, it’s typically just about as likely to be 55 degrees and sunny as it is five below and snowing.
There is, however, one thing you can bank on, at least this year: On Feb. 7, whether it’s freezing or warm, raining or snowing, Carrie Keagler and friends will be downtown, running around Huntington Bank Field in their skivvies. They’ll be like the U.S. Postal Service. On that day, for them, the bras and briefs must go through.
They won’t be alone, either. Far from it. They’ll be a few of several hundred taking part in the annual Cupid’s Undie Run, a unique benefit for neurofibromatosis, or NF.
“It’s definitely not your typical 5K,” said Keagler, co-director of the event and an NF sufferer. “It’s fun when you can forget about everything and just have a blast. I actually hope it’s snowing that day. It’s more fun when there’s a blizzard.”
She’s right about it not being a typical 5K. Indeed, it’s not a 5K – or even a race – at all.
The length of the event varies widely with the weather – on one particularly cold day, it was just a short dash – and there’s no timing, winners, or trophies. The only reason to run (rather than walk) is to get back inside, where it’s warm, more quickly. Notably, if the weather is dangerously cold, the running portion of the event may be shortened or canceled.
That’s because most Undie Run participants are, shall we say, insufficiently dressed. A few will come down in weather-appropriate apparel but most will be sporting “the least you can wear,” Keagler said.
The rationale for the bare-it-all theme is two-fold. The fun reason is to play off Valentine’s Day, to strip down in the name of love, a week early. The more serious interpretation is that running around in the cold, barely clad, fairly simulates life with NF, which causes general nerve damage, among many other symptoms.
“People with NF are uncomfortable in their own skin, for their whole lives,” Keagler said. “When you’re doing this run, you’re uncomfortable in your skin, too. I do this every day. You can do it for a few minutes.”
The numbers behind NF are likewise shocking: Worldwide, it afflicts some two million people. Unlike other conditions and diseases, however, such as cancer, diabetes, or Parkinson’s, NF “flies under the radar,” Keagler said. It’s not well known or widely understood, and many who suffer do so in silence. Some go deaf, and for a few – including Nick Gilbert, son of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert – it’s fatal.
Keagler, for her part, said she’s been “on the lucky side.” She has the telltale NF “café au lait” spots as well as migraines and neck pains, some of which have required surgery. She’s also had gastrointestinal issues and several benign tumors. But she’s never had the chronic liver or kidney troubles that afflict many, and she’s always enjoyed strong support from friends and family, some of whom will run with her on Feb. 7.
“It’s a roller-coaster of good years and bad years,” Keagler said. “I just never know the exact source of the pain. But I also don’t have anything debilitating.”
Many do, of course, and that’s why Keagler has been involved with the event – one of about 30 Undie Runs nationwide – for all of the event’s 13 years. She’s been there on warm days and on a bitter day in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, where there was nowhere to warm up. “We froze our butts off,” she recalled. “You really felt the cold…But I’ll take the cold weather any day, for sure.”
But Keagler hasn’t just been a participant. She’s also been a champion fundraiser and an event co-director. Through her efforts, in part, the Cleveland Undie Run has raised more than $1.25 million for NF research. This, in turn, has led to the development of two new therapies that weren’t available when the event started 13 years ago.
Undie Runners in Cleveland “have played a meaningful role in this progress,” said Rebecca Harris, a spokesperson for the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the national presenter of the event. Their work has shown “how grassroots fundraising events…directly fuel advances in research, treatment, and care for the NF community.”
The novelty of running around outdoors half-naked isn’t the only reason Cleveland’s Undie Run has been such a success. Another likely factor is the alcohol.
There’s a reason registration is limited to those 21 and over. Drinks are available both before and after the run, and to those who raise enough money, the bar is open. “It can get a little wild,” Keagler said.
Wild, though, is a good thing. Especially in this case. If it takes a little liquid courage to get people to do something silly for an excellent cause, so be it.
“I don’t know if people would run outside in their underwear if they didn’t have a cocktail,” Keagler said.
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