Nike Run Hit Remix mixes music, lights and running along 5-mile course
At most races, every runner, no matter his or her pace, kicks it up a notch to stride in the last stretch of the race. At the Nike Run Hit Remix on Aug. 17, however, a group of three runners stopped 10 yards before the finish line to dance the Tootsie Roll. They slided to the left and right, clapped and cheered for other runners, then danced together once again before finally finishing the race under flashing blue strobe lights and blaring music.

10,000 participants, all dressed in light blue Nike Dri-FIT race shirts with their number printed across the front, ran the 9 p.m. 5-mile fun run. Bands, strobe lights and even some bagpipers lined the course from Grant Park to 31st street and back. The run ended with a concert from hip hop band De La Soul.

Of the two previous years the Nike run (previously the Run Hit Wonder) has been in Chicago, this is the first year that the race was not chip timed.

"It's always been considered a fun run," says Nike spokesperson Maggie Mahler. "We've never given away age group awards, and if people want to stop and listen to the bands, they're not running for the time, anyway."

Organizers also decided on a 5-mile run instead of a 5K and 10K this year and started the run one hour later for logistical reasons and to make it feel more like a concert, Mahler says.

The Run Hit Remix featured headliner De La Soul after the run and bands including Young MC, Digital Underground, and Chicago locals Identity Crisis and Vertigo USA along the course. Runners shouted "Hoooe!" along with Young MC and sung along to Sunday Bloody Sunday with U2 cover band Vertigo USA.

"It's very much a social event," says Mahler. "That's something we believe in really strongly is that running is a community and that's we like to bring everyone together in events such as this."

Runners were surprised along the course in the tunnel under the McCormick Center where strobe lights pulsed, electronic music pumped and snow--yes, snow--fell down on the pack of runners. Bagpipers played just south of the Museum Campus, and an Elvis impersonator greeted runners at the halfway point.

"I feel like if every race was like this, I'd do them all the time," said Meghan Kennedy of Chicago.

After the race, runners swarmed Lower Hutchinson Field to enjoy Goose Island Beer, Jamba Juice and wings while listening to De La Soul. Much of the crowd stayed until around midnight when the music ended.

The Chicago Run Hit Remix was the first in a series of Nike Run Hit Remix runs this year also taking place in Los Angeles and Miami.