Five men, some hairy, some shaved clean below the waist, sprinted across a field of clay, soggy from Saturday's squall.
The footing was treacherous, made more difficult by a lack of shoes. In the traditional Olympian fashion, they were nude.
But what can I say, I was too.
Sunday was the 14th Nude College Greek Athletic meet in Monticello.
Driving into Tallahassee Naturally, where the meet was held, I worried about what any first-time, unfit male nudist worries about: being surrounded by sculpted bodies, and of course, erections. Neither fear turned out to be an issue.
Pulling my car up to the registration table, I was greeted by Stephen, the broad-shouldered winner of five Nude Olympics in the athletic male division. He wore a leather gladiator chest piece, a cotton undershirt, and nothing else. Stephen later told me, while standing bare in the discus throwing circle, he would buy dinner for anyone who could find him a "worthy opponent" to compete nude. After parking, I hid behind my car, and slowly arranged the bananas, oranges, water and sun lotion in my book bag.
Facing the social equivalent of jumping out of an airplane, I was in no hurry. Nobody explained when or where to strip down, but I didn't want to turn in my paperwork at the registration desk clothed.
Finally, I took the plunge, which turned out to be the most difficult part, besides dealing with the sunburn. Organizers demonstrated the ancient methods in the long jump, the discus, the javelin and the 200 meter dash.
Six men competed in the non-athlete class and two competed as athletes. While no women competed, several looked on from the crowd, some cheering on their friends.
After long jumping into a trough of mud, the competitors washed off in a nearby pond and moved onto the discus, followed by the 200-yard dash and the javelin.
AJ, a non-athlete, and Kevin, an athlete, from Florida State University, took first place in their respective divisions. While sitting on a bench in the buff following the Olympics, Paul LeValley, Naturally's remaining active founder, discussed his captivation with the idea of nudism and classical philosophers.
He wrote his dissertation on the gymnosophists, the nude philosophers that Alexander the Great met in India, and has written a column for "Travel Naturally" magazine about nudism in art history, according to his Web site.
For LeValley, who sports a philosopher's beard, there is a connection between his research and his nudism.
"This makes it all real," he said.
