Pretzel City also moved the start and finish area away from the more crowded part of the resort toward the camping sites, so we had more space to spread out. Runners were required to wear masks to pick up their packets, and asked to wear them when near other people. That meant almost everyone had traveled to this place - from places as far away as Ohio, Delaware and West Virginia - for the opportunity to do something unusual. While most of the runners were from Pennsylvania, only a handful were also members of the Sunny Rest Resort. The energy felt zippier here than at a normal race - almost giddy.
I lined up near the start, a body in a sea of 115 bodies, ages 9 through 78, all standing six feet apart. Several runners were eager to talk to me, including Bruce Freeburger, 69, who drove from Detroit to run this race. Knowing the privacy concerns, Pretzel City’s race director announced before the race that a photographer and I would be covering the event, and that we would include only those runners who consented to being photographed and interviewed. The events are meant to be fun, but the race organizers recognize that there is something of a taboo around nudity, so it anonymizes race results when posting them online, listing participants only by first name, last initial and home state. Pretzel City has been putting on races there for 13 years. It’s private property, so laws against public nudity are not an issue. Most people go about their daily activities wearing nothing but shoes or sandals, maybe a hat. There’s a pool, spa, volleyball and tennis courts, hot tub, and hiking and biking trails.
Sunny Rest was founded as a nudist resort in 1945 and, except for the lack of clothing, looks like a lot of other campgrounds, with mobile homes, cabins, tents and RVs. “What else do you have to do?” she asked. When a friend who lives in upstate New York said she was 90 percent willing to commit to making the trip to participate in this race, I thought maybe I should go, if for nothing else than to see her.
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