Thick.
The atmosphere was thick and swampy as people started to gather on Turlington Plaza at about 11:30 p.m. Friday night for a brief midnight run.
As the minutes passed, throngs of students arrived in waves. Some came dressed in tank tops and athletic shorts and some in blue jeans and t-shirts. Some walked up in boxers, briefs, bras and undies, with the rest of their outfits in their hands.
The Great Underwear Dash descended again upon UF. This semiannual tradition returned to give students a chance to donate clothes to charity and take a lap around campus in their skivvies.
Minutes away from midnight, Dash organizer and UF electrical engineering senior Jorge Gomez stood in his pink briefs by the trash bins in the center of Turlington, grinning as faded t-shirts and ratty shorts rained down around him.
"This is my favorite part. The nerves are going, everybody is throwing their clothes around," he said.
Gomez is the heir to Beau Bergeron, a UF alumnus who organized the first run in the spring of 2005 as a performance art project. That night, 50 students dashed as 20 spectators watched. Friday night, more than 300 took part in the dash.
On this night, with temperatures in the 80s, there was a rainbow of Speedos, briefs, spandex, boy shorts and the occasional thong.
"FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE…"
With that, the crowd erupted in a roar of hoots and hollers and took off in a mad dash for University Avenue.
The mass of underwear-clad youth rumbled through the Plaza of the Americas, led by a figure in tightie whities wearing a Puerto Rican flag like a cape and a white cowboy hat.
This was David De Jesus, who was experiencing his first dash and not holding back.
"Everybody's kinda flying their freak flag anyway, so why not?" he said.
Hooking around Library West, scores of students lined University Avenue, some spilling out into the road to incite horn honks from drivers and cat calls from onlookers.
Once the crowd turned to run down Fletcher Drive, two police cars crept along beside the dashers, guiding them with flashing lights.
Many runners became joggers and even walkers when turning onto Stadium Road to head back to Turlington, but most picked up the pace to finish strong.
By 12:20 a.m., most dashers, their bodies glistening with sweat, returned to pack up the clothes.
UF senior Sara Klee, who brought her Great Dane, Scout, in red and white striped boxers, said she really appreciated the charity aspect.
"That's really the best part. Not that a bunch of people in their underwear isn't great already," she said.
As the denizens trickled away, Gomez surveyed the collection of 22 garbage bags filled with donations.
The clothes either went to Goodwill or the The Salvation Army, he said.
By 1 a.m., the plaza had cleared, the glistening bodies were gone and the clothes were packed away in Gomez's car. All was quiet.
The air, however, was still thick.
