With one foot on the starting line, a Ninja Turtle, a cat and the Grim Reaper prepared to race.

At about 5 p.m. on Monday, a hoard of students and faculty members, dressed in everything from tutus to chainmail, participated in the third annual Halloween Fun Run/ Walk. The event was hosted by Healthy Monday Syracuse and the Department of Recreation Services.

“We’re encouraging student and faculty to dress up for Halloween — dress up responsibly,” said the director of recreation services, Joseph Lore. “It’s just another way to promote health and wellness to the university community. We created this to extend the outdoor season of running and walking.”

The event was also a way to celebrate the end of “Walktober,” a month-long initiative that encourages the Syracuse University community to get in shape and spend time outdoors before winter arrives. This was the first year that SU participated in the national Walktober event.

Through the Walktober initiative, approximately 300 staff and students wore pedometers and competed either individually or in teams of three or more to see who could walk the most miles in the month of October. The Healthy Monday Syracuse team sent emails asking people to put in their distances for each week.

“It’s an opportunity to get involved and compete in a way that doesn’t take a lot of commitment,” said Lore. “We thought we would try this year to see what sort of response we got from the university, and we’re overwhelmed by the amount of people who have gotten involved with it.”

During the Halloween run, students and faculty had the option to participate either in a 1-mile walk or a 2-mile run. Some raced for prizes that included various gift cards and SU apparel. Others, such as junior biology major Vivian Gomez, ran for the experience and to celebrate Halloween in a new way.

“It’s good to see kids doing something for Halloween that doesn’t involve partying,” Gomez said.

In last year’s Halloween Fun Run, there were 15 participants. This year, there were approximately 40. Lore said the increase was a result of the Department of Recreation Services focusing its effort on marketing the event, which included advertising on Facebook and tabling in dining halls.

Lore said the time of the event was changed from last year’s noon start time to 5 p.m. so that more students could participate, saying he expected fewer people to be busy with class. He said the idea came from students who actually reached out to him and requested a later start. It was all an effort to get as many people involved as possible, Lore said.

At the end of the day, while there was a competitive aspect to the run, participants like Jason DiNardo, a junior applied mathematics major, were more focused on the laid back, festive Halloween spirit of the event.

Said DiNardo: “The best part was just seeing everyone run with their costumes and peoples’ reactions to us running with our weird outfits and laughing at us. That’s always a good thing to see.”

Published on October 29, 2013 at 1:16 am

Contact Margaret: mglin@syr.edu