在大流行中裸跑：推开恐惧，体验自由
JEN A. MILLER
2020年9月2日
In a lot of ways, the 5K I ran on Saturday was like any other race: The tall, skinny guys zipped out front, fast. Spectators rang cowbells. I heard the “Rocky” theme twice along the course.
在很多方面，我周六参加的五公里赛跑和其他比赛没什么两样：又高又瘦的家伙们飞快地跑到了前面。观众们敲起牛铃。一路上我听到两次《洛奇》(Rocky)的主题曲。
Except the spectators were naked. And I was, too.
只不过观众都是裸体的。我也是。
That’s because the race was the Bouncing Buns Clothing Optional 5K, held at the Sunny Rest Resort, a nudist resort in Palmerton, Pa.
这是因为，比赛是在宾夕法尼亚州帕默顿的裸体度假胜地“阳光休憩度假村”(Sunny Rest Resort)举办的“蹦蹦圆饼服装自选五公里跑步比赛”(Bouncing Buns Clothing Optional 5K)。
“Not enough of us do things outside the box anymore, particularly as we get older,” said Ron Horn, race director and co-owner of Pretzel City Sports, which put on the race.
“已经没有太多的人去做点打破常规的事情了，尤其是长大以后，”赛事总监、主办公司普雷策尔城体育(Pretzel City Sports)的共同所有者罗恩·霍恩(Ron Horn)说。
I’ve run a handful of Pretzel City’s clothed (or as naked runners call them, “textile”) races, but the nude events never appealed to me, not when there were a zillion other races to run.
我参加过几次普雷策尔城主办的穿衣服（裸体跑步者称其为“纺织品”）的比赛，但裸体活动从来没有吸引过我，尤其是那时候还有其他无数比赛要参加。
But this year, it caught my attention in part because almost all other races have been canceled because of the coronavirus. In this pandemic season of covering our faces in public, why not uncover everything else? What a fun way to experience some freedom in a time of pressing fear, grief, restrictions and disappointments.
但今年，它引起了我的注意，部分原因是，几乎其他所有比赛都因为新冠病毒而取消了。在这个公众场合大家都要遮住面部的大流行季节，为什么不揭开其他的一切呢？在一个被恐惧、悲伤、限制和失望压得透不过气来的时候，这是一种多么有趣的体验自由的方式啊。
But I hesitated. I’ve been to “toptional” pools in Las Vegas, so nudity wasn’t that much of an obstacle. But running naked? It seemed so — uncomfortable.
但是我犹豫了。我去过拉斯维加斯的“可选无上装”泳池，所以裸体不是很大的障碍。但是裸跑？看起来很不舒服。
And yet: I kept getting the emails about this race, in a year flooded with bad news that had come very close to home. In March, four members of my family were sick with Covid-19. In June, my brother was in the hospital for weeks after a driver struck him while he was on a bike ride.
然而，我不断收到关于这次比赛的电子邮件，这一年里，坏消息铺天盖地，而且近在眼前。今年3月，我家有四个人感染了新冠病毒。今年6月，我的兄弟骑车时被司机撞倒，在医院住了好几个星期。
I’ve spent five months trying to find glimpses of joy in small, simple things, like the sight of a bird on the tree I planted last year, or the feel of my dog’s very soft ear. But the idea of a big, outlandish thing that might bump me out of my gloom had a certain draw.
我花了五个月的时间，试图从细小、简单的事物中寻找一丝快乐，比如看到一只鸟停在我去年种的树上，或者抚摸我的狗柔软的耳朵。但是，想到一个离奇古怪的东西可能会让我从忧郁中惊醒，这件事就显得有了点吸引力。
When a friend who lives in upstate New York said she was 90 percent willing to commit to making the trip to participate in this race, I thought maybe I should go, if for nothing else than to see her.
一个住在纽约州北部的朋友说，她有90%的意愿来参加这次比赛，我想，也许我应该去，哪怕只是为了见她一面。
“What else do you have to do?” she asked.
“你还有别的事要忙吗？”她问。
Sunny Rest was founded as a nudist resort in 1945 and, except for the lack of clothing, looks like a lot of other campgrounds, with mobile homes, cabins, tents and RVs. There’s a pool, spa, volleyball and tennis courts, hot tub, and hiking and biking trails. Most people go about their daily activities wearing nothing but shoes or sandals, maybe a hat. It’s private property, so laws against public nudity are not an issue. Pretzel City has been putting on races there for 13 years.
“阳光休憩”成立于1945年，是一个裸体主义者的度假胜地，除了人们都不穿衣服，看起来和其他许多露营地没什么两样。这里有活动房屋、小木屋、帐篷和房车。有游泳池、水疗中心、排球场和网球场、热水浴缸、徒步路线和自行车道。大多数人在日常活动中只穿鞋或凉鞋，也许还会戴上帽子。这里属于私人房产，所以禁止公开裸体的法律不是问题。普雷策尔城在这里举办了13年的比赛。
The events are meant to be fun, but the race organizers recognize that there is something of a taboo around nudity, so it anonymizes race results when posting them online, listing participants only by first name, last initial and home state. Knowing the privacy concerns, Pretzel City’s race director announced before the race that a photographer and I would be covering the event, and that we would include only those runners who consented to being photographed and interviewed.
这些活动本来是为了好玩，但比赛组织者意识到裸体是一定的禁忌，所以在网上公布比赛结果时会匿名，只列出参赛者的名、姓氏首字母和所在州。由于隐私问题，普雷策尔城的比赛总监在赛前宣布，我和一名摄影师将负责报道比赛，而我们只会采访同意接受拍照和采访的选手。
Several runners were eager to talk to me, including Bruce Freeburger, 69, who drove from Detroit to run this race. He operates the website naked5k.com. Its slogan: “I did wear shoes!”
有几位跑友很想跟我聊聊，包括69岁的布鲁斯·弗里伯格(Bruce Freeburger)，他从底特律开车赶来参加这次比赛。他经营着一家名为naked5k.com的网站，口号是：“我确实穿鞋！”
“It’s not ‘Girls Gone Wild,’” he said of naked runs. He believes that those who run nude tend to be “unselfish, and more sportsmanlike.”
“这不是‘女孩们去撒野’(Girls Gone Wild)，”他谈到裸跑时说。他认为那些裸跑者往往“很无私，更有体育精神”。
As soon as I pulled into Sunny Rest (after showing my ID and having the license plate of my car recorded by security), I saw a man in a wide-brimmed sun hat and no pants walking toward the pool.
我开车进入“阳光休憩” （出示了身份证，保安记录了我的车牌），很快就看到一个戴着宽边太阳帽、没穿裤子的男人向泳池走去。
By the time I parked near the race start, I felt prim. Some runners were clothed, but most were in some state of undress. A woman breastfed her child while she checked in. A man waited to run in just sneakers and a Viking helmet — he hung his mask from one of the horns when he wasn’t near other people. I saw my friend, already stripped down. She fit right in. I gave her an elbow bump and took off my shorts. It didn’t feel weird, at all.
把车停在比赛起点附近时，我觉得自己过于拘谨了。有些参赛者穿着衣服，但大多数参赛者都脱了衣服。一个女人一边给孩子喂奶，一边办理参赛手续。一个男人穿着运动鞋，头戴维京头盔，等待比赛开始——如果他身边没什么人，他就把口罩挂在头盔犄角上。我看到了我的朋友，她已经脱光了。她很适合这里。我用手肘撞了她一下，然后脱掉了我的短裤。感觉一点儿也不奇怪。
To prepare for the experience, I’d tried running completely naked on the treadmill in my basement, and determined that going braless was impractical for me. So I took the Donald Duck approach and wore a hat and sports bra but no bottoms. When I checked in, I was handed a race bib and a T-shirt, but then a staffer — naked except for mask and gloves — wrote my race number with a marker on my leg. Where was I going to pin a bib anyway?
为了做准备，我曾试着在我地下室的跑步机上全裸跑步，最后还是决定，不穿胸罩对我来说不现实。所以我像唐老鸭那样，戴帽子、穿运动内衣，但没穿裤子。登记时，他们给了我一块比赛号码布和一件T恤，但后来又有个除了口罩和手套之外什么也没穿的工作人员用记号笔在我腿上写下了我的比赛号码。我该把比赛号码布别在哪儿呢？
I lined up near the start, a body in a sea of 115 bodies, ages 9 through 78, all standing six feet apart. The energy felt zippier here than at a normal race — almost giddy. While most of the runners were from Pennsylvania, only a handful were also members of the Sunny Rest Resort. That meant almost everyone had traveled to this place — from places as far away as Ohio, Delaware and West Virginia — for the opportunity to do something unusual.
我在起点附近排队，置身115具肉体中，大家的年龄从九岁到78岁不等，所有人都相隔六英尺。这里的能量感比正常比赛更加强烈——几乎令人晕眩。虽然大多数参赛者来自宾夕法尼亚州，但只有少数人是阳光休憩度假村的会员。这意味着几乎所有从俄亥俄州、特拉华州和西弗吉尼亚州等地远道而来的人，都只是为了有机会做一些不同寻常的事情。
Runners were required to wear masks to pick up their packets, and asked to wear them when near other people. Pretzel City also moved the start and finish area away from the more crowded part of the resort toward the camping sites, so we had more space to spread out. Over a bullhorn, Horn asked us to put our arms straight out by our sides and said, “If you are touching someone you are not sleeping with, you are standing too close.”
参赛者被要求戴上口罩去取比赛用品，靠近其他人时也要戴上口罩。普雷策尔城还将起点和终点区从更拥挤的地方移到了露营地，这样就有了更多的分散空间。通过扩音器，霍恩要求我们把胳膊伸直在两侧举起，说，“如果你碰到的人不是和你一起睡觉的人，你就站得太近了。”
After the initial newness of being aware of my butt bouncing around, everything felt pretty much the same as in a clothed race. We started at 10:15 a.m., and I’m usually done running by 8 a.m. in the summer, so it was hot. I was grateful for my hat, and the sunblock and anti-chafing balm I’d applied all over my body. By the first mile, I was coated in sweat.
在最初意识到屁股正在弹跳的新鲜感之后，一切都和穿衣服赛跑差不多。我们在上午10点15分开始，在夏天，我一般早上8点就跑完了，所以觉得很热。幸亏我戴了帽子，还涂了一身的防晒霜和防擦伤膏。跑完第一英里，我浑身都是汗。
“I don’t have a shirt to wipe off my face!” another runner shouted. The more experienced naked runners had thought to carry little towels.
“我没有衣服用来擦脸！”另一个跑步者喊道。比较有经验的裸跑者都想到了要带小毛巾。
Part of the course was an out and back, so I saw the leaders coming back as I went out. With a full view of their entire, naked forms in motion, I felt appreciation, in the same way I’d look at a nice painting.
赛道有一部分是往返的，所以我接着跑的时候，看到领先者们已经回来了。看到他们整个赤裸的形体在运动，我感到很美，就像欣赏一幅佳作。
I didn’t worry about anyone else appreciating my body — from the naked ladies cheering from their trailer’s outdoor bar to the gentleman doing naked squats on his deck. The race didn’t feel sexualized at all, and I didn’t worry about which parts of my body were not perfectly flat and smooth, about what parts of my body shook with every step. I was just another body in motion.
我不担心其他人欣赏我的身体——从在房车的户外酒吧欢呼的裸体女士到露台上裸体做深蹲的绅士。比赛一点都没有突出“性”的部分，我不担心我身体的哪些部位不够平整光滑，我不担心我身体的哪些部位每跑一步都会颤抖。我只是另一个运动中的身体。
