Thursday, July 10, 2008

regis and kelly ripa's "high heel-a-thon" 150 yard dash in central park!

yesterday an interesting race was held in central park, the "high heel-a-thon," to benefit the march of dimes. i doubt many from the new york running community were aware it took place! unless, that is, you're a fan of "live with regis and kelly!" - which sponsored and broadcast the 150 yard dash live, in fact!

this wasn't the typical central park race, like those sponsored by the new york road runners. in fact, for this race, running shoes were strictly forbidden! runners, instead had to wear 3-inch high heel shoes! while the race was officially limited to women, there was a fun run division for men (those lucky - or weird - enough to score high heel shoes for the race)!

but, in other respects, it was very traditional - timing chips, bibs, race shirts and, money prizes! 500 women and 11 men ran the race. the winner took home $25,000! second and third place won $5,000 and $2,500, respectively. princely (or should i say princess) sums considering cash awards in other central park road races!!

while clearly a publicity stunt, it wasn't the first, or only one, of it's kind. earlier this year, in march, a similar event took place in amsterdam! and there have been other high heel races in throughout the united states. but if this one in central park become an annual event, count me in - if i can find a pair of heels in size nine - ha.


5 comments:

DawnB said...

25,000 for 150 yards I would do it too

A Plain Observer said...

were you one of the 11?

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

winner took home $25,000...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
damn, get me some pumps :-)

those ladies were flying in those shoes, I was waiting for someone to wipe out...they did good!!

rundangerously said...

i gotta say, hearing about this race - especially the $25k prize money - took me by surprise?

did anyone in nyc even know it was happening?

regis and ripa had runners come in from all over the country to run it - but where were the nyc runners?!

Simon said...

there were plenty of New Yorkers, including a few good distance runners and triathletes. They got swallowed up, as the race was dominated by track runners. Even my friends who win road races admitted they'd have had no chance.