Naked Mile exposed on Web

For less than $30, viewers can "see everything from pre-race interviews, the strip down and the post-race report."

Advertisements at www.sex-fun.com boast that their Naked Mile video is "Rated R, but very bushy. Unbelieveable!!!"

Students running the Naked Mile tomorrow face the possiblity that pictures of their naked bodies could be featured on videos such as this or one of many Internet sites that feature Naked Mile footage.

A search on the Alta Vista Internet search engine revealed dozens of Internet sites devoted to posting pictures and selling videos of the Naked Mile. Mike Steele, a part-time spokesperson for www.nakedmile.com, said his site alone has had 15,000-20,000 hits in the past year.

"People ought to be aware that their picture will be posted if they run," said Steele, a University alumnus. "You could take a picture of someone at the Naked Mile and have it on the Internet in an hour."

Some of the (500-700) students who ran the Naked Mile last year have no idea that people are taping the event for commercial purposes, said Assistant to the Vice President for University Affairs Mary Lou Antieau.

"Students should not perceive (the Naked Mile) as a benign, harmless activity in the sense of a college tradition because of what might happen that would get in the way of future aspirations," Antieau said. "Many students aren't aware that they'll be shown in full glory on the Internet.

"My nightmare is that the first female to run for president will have their picture posted on the front cover of Hustler" Magazine she said.

The Naked Mile began in 1986 when a house full of Michigan men's crew and track team members decided to streak through the streets of Ann Arbor the night of the last day of class.

The crew team will begin this year's Naked Mile at 10:30 p.m. tomorrow at the corner of Forest Street and South University Avenue. The lacrosse team will lead the main group of runners at midnight.

Men's crew team member Patrick Finn said he recently received a message from a man who claimed to work at Playgirl Magazine. He said the man may offer to pay members of the crew team to pose nude for the magazine.

"As a team we won't agree to do that, but I can't speak for individuals," Finn said. "People are going to be videotaping anyway.

"I don't think (the taping) deters anyone from running, but it kind of degrades a great college tradition," he said.

Steele said some people devote their lives to traveling across the nation to tape footage of the Naked Mile, Mardi Gras and other nudist events.

"They go from locale to locale and have businesses that are based on amateur naked events," Steele said. "The level they'll go to capture the best images is breathtaking.

"It wouldn't surprise me this year if people flew over (to tape the mile in a) helicopter with strobe lights," he said.

LSA junior Claudia Lopez said she ran the mile twice before she found out tapes were made of the event.

"I think I will (run the mile again this year), but the tapes are definitely a deterrent," said Lopez, a member of the Michigan women's crew team. "When I see guys with a camera, I get grossed out. I want to tell them to get a life.

"I'm thinking of buying whip cream and spraying it into the lenses of cameras while I'm running," she said.

Steele said www.nakedmile.com will be giving away a free video of the Naked Mile this year to anyone who visits their Website and asks for one. He said students upset that tapes of the Naked Mile are sold worldwide must realize the run's importance transcends beyond Ann Arbor's borders.

"I think we've always, as students, sort of felt this is our campus, and this is our thing," Steele said. "As idealistic as this seems, it's far more than that.

"If they give away 1,000,000 videos, next year this place (on the night of the Naked Mile) will be like football Saturday," he said.

Steele said the videos are not pornographic, but added that part of their appeal is that females who run the mile are not the same kind of girls men normally see naked on film.

"The girls think these guys are videotaping it for personal self-pleasuring," Steele said. "That's just a cut against men, and I don't think it's generally the case.

"I would think people who bought a video are showing it at halftime of the Super Bowl. It's closer to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue than X-rated videos," he said.

LSA senior Kelley Crutchfield said she will run the mile in disguise because she does not want her picture on film or videotape.

Cameras "definitely make me uncomfortable," Crutchfield said. "I'm going to wear a hat and sunglasses to disguise myself."

04-20-98