Brief jog at the Olympic Park

Some 200 people joined in a 3.5-kilometer Underwear Run around Beijing Olympic Forest Park yesterday morning, to promote a healthy lifestyle through sports and a cold weather challenge.

The runners, wearing only undergarments or shorts, gathered at 8:30 am in the park and started circling the lake at 9:30 am after warm-up exercises.

Many showed off outfits featuring wigs or underpants with hilarious pictures and had painted their faces, attracting hundreds of people who lined the route taking photos.

Each participant was asked to bring a friend to wait at the finish line with hot drinks and clothes for the runners.

"It was about 0 C when we gathered, but there were no quitters throughout the run," said Wang Yibin, a sports photographer and one of those behind the event. He refers to the activity as the "naked pigs' run."

All the runners joined after Wang publicized the event on his microblog on February 10, and they are mostly amateurs in their 30s. Many of them are already friends through previous running exercises or competitions, Wang said, and 80 percent are male.

"We got the idea from the Underwear Run events in foreign countries and wanted it to bring out the healthy spirit and sporty side of Chinese people," he told the Global Times.

"People tend to eat a lot during Spring Festival holidays, and we'd like to see whether our running buddies have managed to keep fit through exercise," he said.

Organizers had come up with plans to ward off security problems, he said, "we had plans how to fight back in case someone starts trouble in the crowd."

Ma Demin, a 39-year-old "running buddy" sees the activity as an opportunity to "show off the body and pose a challenge to the cold weather." He wore two toy bears on top while running, with a tag saying "save bears" on his back.

"I want to send a message that it's morally wrong to take bile from live bears," Ma said, indicating the recent scandal, which involves Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, a Fujian-based company that hogged headlines and sparked a national debate with its bear bile extraction practices.

"It was really fun to join in a fun, physically and mentally challenging run like this," Ma said.

Similar runs were held in other cities, including Dalian, Liaoning Province, and Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"Running buddies nationwide are all welcome to take part," Wang said. They had prepared prizes for runners with the "best body" and "coolest outfit," he said.

The activity will become annual, fixed on the last Sunday in February to mark the kickoff of the year's "running season," Wang said, "and it'll be great if the government could offer support."