The nearly naked Cupid’s Undie Run returns to Manhattan in February

A colorful crew of nearly naked New Yorkers will run a mile on the Lower East Side this February – not just to be silly but also to help those with what's currently an incurable condition.

The annual tradition, started nationally in 2010 and locally in 2012, is called Cupid’s Undie Run. It raises funds to research neurofibromatosis, a group of genetic conditions that cause the widespread development of tumors, as well as awareness about the disorders.

So why run in one’s undies?

For many with neurofibromatosis, their tumors, as well as the scars from their removal, or other effects of the disorder cannot be hidden. And so the idea is that for a day, no one hides their bodies.

“ When you get together with a bunch of people that have a shared condition and it's a light-hearted environment, and then you go outside and run aimlessly for a mile in the cold, you feel better,” said Cobble Hill resident Adam Slackman, who was diagnosed with NF about ten years ago.

Specifically, he was diagnosed with the rarest of the three NF disorders, schwannomatosis, which occurs in approximately one in every 20,000 births according to the Children’s Tumor Foundation.

Slackman said learning he had the condition was isolating and scary — but discovering a community of others with NF through Cupid’s has been an enormous comfort.

“When you're an adult and your family is confronted with something like this, they're supportive and they're there for you but finding other people that deal with the disorder is huge,” he said.

Cupid’s — which is an official event of the Children’s Tumor Foundation — started in Washington, D.C. in 2010 before coming to New York two years later.

Slackman started attending in 2014 and estimates he’s raised “probably in excess of $20,000” over the years, during which he’s watched the event grow quickly.

Indeed, Cupid’s may not yet have the cultural cachet of other large winter shenanigans like Santacon or the No Pants Subway Ride, but it’s now in 34 American cities and has raised more than $23.7 million for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.

This year’s New York run will start and end at The DL nightclub at 95 Delancey St. on Saturday, Feb. 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Online registration is now open.