No clothes? No problem! This 5K is at Caliente

Clothing-optional road races are nothing new for the area's nudist and clothing-optional resorts, but the Bare Dare 5K on Sunday will be the first such event at the Caliente Resort & Spa off U.S. 41.

Race director Pete Williams, whose company Enterprise Media LLC is sponsoring the race, said about 200 people from 12 states are expected for Caliente's inaugural 5K run. This week, Williams said, he counted 18 people who are scheduled to travel at least 700 miles to participate.

Williams said he has promoted the race "through Sirius Satellite radio and just the nature of the Internet."

At Caliente, he said, "they have two miles of jogging paths already there, plus there's the popularity of the place and its upscale nature. It's not a huge time of year for people to come to Florida. I was talking to some people from Illinois recently. They'd never been to Caliente and were intrigued about the race.

"Last week, I was talking to a couple from Missouri who registered. I don't know what kind of airfare you can get right now, but that's great," he said.

A Safety Harbor resident and co-author of several fitness books, Williams also has played up the race on "The Fitness Buff," a radio show he co-hosts with Sabrina Vizzari on BlogTalkRadio. The pair occasionally broadcast from Caliente.

The 3.1-mile course wraps around Caliente's running trails and lakes, where sandhill cranes and other wildlife are known to visit, and ends just a few feet from the resort's 8,500-square-foot lagoon and pool.

The daughter of nudists, Vizzari introduced clothing-optional road races to Land O' Lakes in 1993 when she organized what is thought to be Florida's first such event, the Dare to Go Bare 5K at Lake Como Family Nudist Resort.

She later promoted the Sneaker Streaker 5K at Paradise Lakes Resort, but that race was discontinued after the venue changed ownership in 2007.

"When I was (public relations director) at Lake Como, we got attendance to about 400 or so, and they're still doing it," Vizzari said. "It's a good way to get people to come out and have some fun. Pete's doing a wonderful job on preregistrations. We have about 42 percent females, which is really impressive.

"At Lake Como and some other runs, it's a male-dominated sport. You always have some females there, but it's probably 65 to 70 percent male for textile runs," in which people must wear clothes.

Runners need not be members of Caliente to participate. For information about the race, including cost, go to www.baredare5k.com.