Students stripped down to their underwear for the 2009 Undie Run.
The participants ran down Guadalupe Street, across campus and into the Littlefield Fountain. Before the run, the students donated their clothes to various local charities. On Friday night, hundreds of students got together, stripped down to their undies and ran across the 40 Acres. And no, it wasn’t just a normal weekend night in West Campus. The second annual Austin Undie Run secured its standing as a finals-week tradition when half-naked, study-crazed students ran down the Drag and through campus, culminating in an epic swim in the Littlefield Fountain. Girls in lingerie rode the statues of winged horses while boys in tighty-whiteys splashed through jet streams of water, everyone soaking wet and exhilarated from the nighttime run. “Swimming in the fountain with all these people was a quintessential moment of my time here at UT,” said Hannah Carnes, a graduating art studies senior. “It was an amazing way to end my college experience.” The run was more than just a good time. The hundreds of students who attended the event took off and donated almost 2,000 articles of clothing to local charities like St. Vincent De Paul, Trinity Center and Lifeworks. “It’s about giving back,” Carls said. “We all go about our daily lives and spend our own or our parents’ money buying clothes that sometimes never see the light of day. Why not take that stuff and make someone else’s day”
Before the run started, the students met in the parking lot at the intersection of 22nd and Rio Grande streets to enter contests for prizes and drink dollar beers courtesy of Pie Guys.