SOCIAL MOVEMENT
There’s a nude awakening happening in running and converts say it’s a clothes-free thrill
IT TOOK A GOOD 20 MINUTES for Nicola Riches to pluck up the courage to get out of her car. Another 20 minutes to be coaxed out of the changing room by a kindly man dressed in socks, trainers and his birthday suit. But once on the start line – unclothed and in the company of 200 other nude runners – something quite surprising happened: the 49-year-old began to relax. ‘It felt strangely normal,’ she says.
Riches was taking part in the Naturist Foundation’s long-running 5K race, held at its 20-hectare (50-acre) clothes-free wooded parkland known as Brocken Hurst, in Orpington, Kent. The biannual BH5K consists of three laps of a woodland course renowned for its spring bluebells. ‘I ran the first two laps, but decided I’d walk the third and really savour the experience. I thought, “How often am I going to get the chance to do this in my life?”’
Well, perhaps more often than she thinks, given the rising popularity of nude jogging (‘naked’, note, is widely used to describe tech-free running).
The BH5K in May had the biggest field in its history, and the £17.50 tickets for the September event are selling fast. A survey by Ipsos last year found 14% of people in the UK describe themselves as naturists or nudists. Twenty years ago, that was around 2%.
Like the majority of nude running events, the BH5K was held at a private resort. But while the race featured a fair few members (stop it), a lot of the field were first-timers.
Nude races can be surprisingly competitive. At the BH5K, runners are chipped, via Velcro ankle tags, and the course record is 17:10. For Steve Paton, 62 – akeen runner with a 22:30 PB for 5K – this event, back in 2016, was the gateway to a naturist way of life. Now he’s a foundation trustee and proud race organiser.
Nude runs are not without their challenges, he says. Applying sun cream on all that extra flesh can be a faff. And, invariably, there’ll be someone who turns up with the wrong idea about the exercise involved. ‘They’re asked to leave,’ says Paton, curtly. On the plus side, nude running can boost happiness, self-esteem and bo
