About 20 students walked and ran around the Syracuse University campus dressed as ketchup bottles, ballerinas and sumo wrestlers on Monday to motivate the community to get active.

The Department of Recreation Services held its fourth annual “Run Scared” fun run/walk on the Quad on Monday. Students were encouraged to don their best costumes, and come run SU’s Healthy Mile campus loop with their friends.

The event was part of Walktober, a Syracuse University Healthy Monday initiative aimed at promoting an active lifestyle for both students and faculty. More than 450 participants, including over 40 student, faculty and staff teams, registered to take part in this year’s Walktober program, pledging to count their steps during the month of October. “Run Scared” was one of the final events of the month, and drew about 20 people.

Joseph Lore, director of Recreation Services, said this year’s Walktober month has been the most successful one yet.

“We’ve had such a big turnout,” Lore said. “And this year it’s just gotten even bigger and more popular. There’s more awareness about walking and the benefits of walking, so we’re really excited.”

To promote the race, Recreation Services displayed two banners, provided about 300 table tent inserts in the dining halls and posted the event on its Facebook page, Lore said. Despite the advertising efforts, only half as many people showed up for this year’s Halloween-themed fun run compared to the 40 participants from last year.

Emily Mason, a senior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, who came dressed as a bottle of ketchup, thought positively of the Walktober initiative and was excited to take part in Monday’s race.

“I think it’s awesome, keeping people active,” Mason said. “I know it’s difficult to actually have motivation to go to the gym or run, but this makes it a more fun way to do that.”

At 5:15 p.m., participants took off from the starting line in front of Carnegie Library. After about seven minutes, the first finisher, Elias Hubbard, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, crossed the finish line.

“I thought it was a lot of fun,” Hubbard said, “I just thought it was really good time to be able to come out in a costume, in a wardrobe like this. It was really fun, especially being surrounded in the Syracuse University environment.”

Hubbard was followed by Joe Sulpizio, a third year law student dressed as a Bruins fan, and Callie Sher, who had her hair pinned up into a cone shape.

Fitbits, personal fitness monitors, were awarded as prizes to the top three finishers. Additionally, 10 trophies were distributed to the runners with the best individual costume, best group costume and judges’ choice costume.

But although there was competition involved, the event wasn’t so much about being the fastest as it was about celebrating Halloween with a health-based twist. Lore added that he thought participants’ costumes were the best part of the race.

“It’s not as much the race, it’s about getting people to dress responsibly and come out and do something just a little bit different.” Lore said. “It’s about spirit and Halloween celebration.”

Published on October 28, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Brigid: brkenned@syr.edu