Run Faster

Just in case you haven’t heard about this yet, Nike is sponsoring a 10K race they are calling the ‘Nike Human Race’. The race is scheduled for August 31, 2008.

What’s a bit unusual about this race is that it will be held in 25 cities around the globe - or you can choose to participate by running with the Nike+ system and uploading your ‘race’ results after you run on race day. If you run your race virtually with the Nike+ system there is no fee, except of course for the cost of a Nike+ system if you don’t already have one. There is a $35 fee for participating by entering the event in one of the race cities, which seems like a pretty good deal to me considering some of the race fees I’ve been seeing lately.

And it gets even better - race proceeds, and any pledges or donations earned by the runners, will benefit three different charities:

• The Lance Armstrong Foundation
• The UN Refugee Agency
• The World Wildlife Fund

Nike has also pledged to give $1 million to these charities.

Want more information? Click here, but be warned: music will play automatically when the page opens, so you may not want to do this if you’re surfing at work, at least without muting first.

You can buy a Nike+ Sportband for $59. The Nike+ iPod Sport Kit is less expensive at $29, but it requires an iPod Nano, which brings up the total cost of the system quite a bit. With either system, you’ll need either Nike+ shoes or you’ll have to attach the sensor to another shoe, either by some do-it-yourself hackery or by buying one of several commercial products.

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