Police Use Taser on Naked Marathon Runner

     Police charged Brett S. Henderson, 35, with public indecency and obstructing official business. Police say Henderson was told to exit the race and get in a police car but he refused, running around an officer and continuing to run in the race. Eventually, Henderson was instructed by police to get in a car or he would be Tased. Henderson kept on running and an officer Tased him.


    Now the other side of the story.


     Henderson said he had not planned on running naked. He borrowed a pair of running shorts from his father, but they kept falling off. "I looked but couldn't find a drawstring ... I kept fighting and pulling on them, and then the elastic gave way so I let them drop," said Brett. "I just went with it because I wanted to finish the marathon." 
     
     " All the other runners were supportive and kept encouraging me to continue, so I was running naked," he said. "It
was cold and rainy, so I wasn't exactly proud of what I was showing."

     "I've run in marathons all over the country, and I think I know the running culture pretty well and I know that anything goes on race day," he said. "This is something that happens and is tolerated in the running culture, along with runners who sometimes (urinate) or defecate during a race. Shouldn't that be considered indecent exposure, too, if what I did was indecent? In fact, running naked was encouraged in a marathon I ran in San Francisco, so I don't know why this was such a big deal."

The Urbana Daily Citizen

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