By Al Campbell
VANCOUVER, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- David Palermo ended Kevin McGuinness' three-year reign as the Wreck Beach Bare Bun's champion Sunday when he won the five-kilometer, clothing optional race in Vancouver under wet conditions.
Competing in the race for the first time against a field of about 50 runners, Palermo, a 27-year-old massage therapist, completed the course over the sand on Canada's most famous nude beach in 16 minutes and 58 seconds, about 30 seconds ahead of Washington State native McGuinness.
"It was a great run, first time for me. I've been meaning to get down here for a few years," said Palermo, body glistening under a mix of sweat and sand.
"I do a lot of road running so this is a lot different being on the sand. A lot of different terrain, you've got the mud, the sand, loose sand, water, it's really interesting. And of course hills and stuff too. So it was different.
"I come down to Wreck Beach all the time, I love it down here. I had some friends down here that wanted me to run because they knew I could probably beat Kevin (McGuinness). Him and I have run together a lot through the series, the Lower Mainland series and stuff. It was about time I came down and kept the prize in Canada."
The charity race, where all the money raised will go to help in the preservation of the nudist beach located down a steep cliff below the University of British Columbia campus, was the final leg of a three-race series around the Pacific Northwest.
Earlier races were held in Spokane and outside Seattle, the two big cities in neighboring Washington State.
McGuinness, who usually competes in traditional marathons, as well as in races of lesser distances, said he had been running nude, periodically, for about 18 years.
He called the conditions for the three races in the series very different. The Seattle race was on a course up a steep mountain and very dangerous coming down, while the Spokane course was along a gravel road.
With his training, fully clothed, covering anywhere from 80 to 120 kilometers a week, he added running nude was no different, it all depended on the weather.
"When it's cold it's a bit uncomfortable sometimes. But that's why they have the races in the summertime. It's fine," said McGuinness who has run in the world famous Boston Marathon on two occasions.
"A lot of people think that it can be painful. I don't mind it all. It's a lot of fun. Fortunately it is only five K. It's not like I am running a marathon."
"I do train with clothes on," he added with a laugh. "I would imagine training in the nude I would probably be arrested in the town that I live. But I haven't tried it and I don't think I will. I'll stick with racing in the nude."
With the participants of the Vancouver run ranging from seven to 90 years old, among those who stood out were a heavily pregnant woman who walked the course, elderly couples who alternated between jogging and walking in the light rain, and assorted crazies in creative headgear. For most, the joy of competing in and completing the race was a major accomplishment.
Judy Williams, chairman of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society, organizer of the event, said the race was started 14 years ago in memory of elderly comedian Paddy White, a tireless fundraiser for the beach, who was run over by a vehicle while in the southern United States.
She added the main purpose of the race was not as a fundraiser, but more so to let non-nudists or non-naturists understand that "body acceptance is the idea and nude recreation is the way".
"While you are on this Earth you have one temple that you live in forever, regardless of what your outer surroundings might be, and that is your body. And if you can accept your body you are much more tolerant and accepting of other people on this planet. If everybody were naturists we would not have the wars that we have. There would be peace on this planet," he said.
Having a nude beach within 15 minutes of the city center, however, has not come without its controversies. While the secluded beach has been enjoyed by naturists for more than 80 years, if has often come at the expense of much scorn and public debate.
For many years, the beach was a no-man's land and inner-jurisdictional. The university sought to develop the land, while the federal Department of Public Works wanted to dredge it. Vancouver City's board of parks and recreations also wanted to develop and build bath houses and not allow nudity.
In 1985, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national force which patrols the Endowment Lands where the university and some of the country's priciest real estate is located, wanted to build road access to the beach.
Enraged, the naturists responded by producing a petition with more than 13,000 signatures opposing the plan. The naturists eventually won the right from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to be nude on all 7.8 kilometers of Wreck Beach.
By 1991, the area's various municipalities voted nearly unanimously that the beach would stay clothing optional.
"They didn't want us to be naked down here at all. We had to go through the fires of Hell in order to establish that we were environmentalists, we cared about what happened to this beach," Williams said.
"Our mandate is to preserve Wreck Beach in as nearly a natural state as possible. That's because it is a very beautiful, a very spiritual place."
