"Naked Pumpkin Run" Photos: Colorado Streakers Go Nude in Mad Halloween Dash
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS/AP) Nothing But Pumpkin!
That is all runners will be wearing as they strip down to their birthday suits for Boulder's annual Halloween "Naked Pumpkin Run" Saturday.
As the temperatures dip in the Rockies – one forecast calls for 35 degrees the evening on the run – dozens of Coloradoans with an exhibitionist spirit will bare all for the Halloween jaunt.
The naughty dash is a yearly tradition. More than 100 people took part in last year's event, which takes place on the college town's pedestrian mall.
The stark-naked runners carve their own freshly gutted pumpkins, which they wear on their heads while jogging.
About a dozen of the hundred streakers last year were ticketed for indecent exposure.
No one was convicted.
Politicians and the public were concerend that under state law the streakers would be labeled sex offenders if they had been convicted.
Regardless, police say they'll be making arrests this year, too.
PICTURES: Naked Pumpkin Run
But it is not clear if Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett is willing to prosecute the bare-skinned bandits.
"We want to back up the police, who are in the difficult position of deciding what to ticket people for and how to maintain order on Halloween. So we will do as we always do, which is look at everything on a case-by-case basis, "Garnett said, according the Denver Westward.
"But having said that, I've been on my soapbox for a while about how Colorado's statutory scheme doesn't fit very well for things like the Pumpkin Run… there are problems with each of the current charges," Garnett said
In the meantime, a Boulder restaurant wants to help participants avoid arrest by providing them with low-cut orange underwear.
Hapa Sushi owner Mark Van Grack says he is handing out the orange undies because he's afraid the runners will be arrested if they bare all.
It doesn't hurt that the underwear also sports the restaurant's name on the rear with a reminder to "run responsibly."
The history of the "Naked Pumpkin Run" traces back to a small group of friends whose group grew year after year, according to the event's website.
PICTURES: Naked Pumpkin Run
"What was originally just a group of friends turned into its own community, a community tied together by the excitement and camaraderie of participating in something new…. something greater," the site reads.
Organizers warn that participants run at their own risk and that they take no responsibility for any arrests.
"The violation of the Western societal more, enforced by law, of unclothed public exposure can indeed land you legal consequences. Furthermore, the decision to participate is yours and yours alone. We have never and will never force anyone to participate," organizers write on the site.
Why run? "Everyone runs for his or her own reasons, but the euphoria of actually running is indescribable."