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.
