MEN’S HEALTH URBANATHLON & FESTIVAL HITS THE STREETS IN CHICAGO WITH CELEBRITY HOST MARIO LOPEZ
Official Sponsors Include
New Balance, Powerade Zero, Gillette Odor Shield, BSN Colorado Tourism, Givenchy Play
-Register Online at www.MensHealthUrbanathlon.com-
NEW YORK, NY, (October 4, 2010)—Men’s Health, the largest men’s lifestyle magazine brand in the world, will host its annual signature event, the Men’s Health URBANATHLONTM & Festival, on Saturday, October 16th in Chicago with celebrity host Mario Lopez. The event, now in its fourth year in Chicago, is a one-of-a-kind, 9-mile competition that combines traditional road race elements with rigorous obstacles and sets them against a backdrop of iconic city landmarks. Mario Lopez, host of the popular nationally syndicated show EXTRA and New York Times Best-Selling author of Extra Lean and Mario Lopez’s Knockout Fitness, will warm up more than 7,000 urbanathletes to conquer the toughest course yet, sound the starting gun to kick off the race, and cheer them on as they cross the URBANATHLONTM finish line.
"We’re excited to have Mario Lopez as the celebrity host of this year’s Men’s Health URBANATHLONTM & Festival," said Jack Essig, SVP/Publishing Director of Men’s Health. "Mario’s passion for health and fitness make him an ideal representative of the Men’s Health urbanathlete and his involvement will bring even more energy and excitement to the event."
Building on the success of last year’s event, Men’s Health is taking this year’s competition to the next level with tougher obstacles and a more intense, overhauled course, providing participants with the most unique and demanding race to date. Course highlights include tire stutter-stepping and balancing across concrete barriers at Navy Pier, traversing monkey bars through McCormick Place, followed by the Soldier Field stair climb. More information on this year’s newly updated obstacles can be found at menshealthurbanathlon.com/obstacles.cfm.
The race will begin promptly at 7:45 a.m., Saturday, October 16th in Upper Hutchinson Field at the corner of Columbus Drive and Balbo Drive. Registration for the race is available online at MensHealthUrbanathlon.com.
Post-race, the excitement continues at the Men’s Health URBANATHLONTM Festival with DJ sets, live music from The Spazmatics, food, drink, and a range of sponsor-provided samples to demo and take home. The festival is free and open to the public.
The Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) will be the Beneficiary of the race for the fourth year in a row. Participants can sign up for the Men's Health Mission to raise funds for CAF online at the URBANATHLONTM website. Equinox joins this year’s URBANATHLONTM event as the official Fitness Partner and other partners include TimeOut Chicago & Corona Light.
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About Men’s Health (www.menshealth.com)
Men’s Health is the largest men’s lifestyle magazine brand in the world with 40 editions worldwide. Published 10 times a year in the U.S. by Rodale, Men’s Health is the best-selling men’s magazine on newsstands, each month providing its 12 million readers with the latest information on all aspects of a guy’s life including health, fitness, fashion, nutrition, relationships, travel, technology and finance. The magazine has garnered numerous accolades in the industry including several appearances on Advertising Age’s “A List”, Adweek’s “Hot List” and Capell’s Circulation Report, which recently named the magazine “Best Newsstand Performer of the Decade.” In 2007, Men’s Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko was named “Editor of the Year” by Adweek magazine shortly after the title secured the top spot on their “Brand Leaders Hot List” in 2006. The magazine has also received a National Magazine Award in both the General Excellence and the personal service categories. Men’s Health also publishes several branded books, DVDs, special interest publications and the online subscription service www.menshealthtrainer.com.
Erin Clinton
erin.clinton@rodale.com
(212) 808-1683
lisa.ripson@ripsoncommunications.com
(312) 952-7394
Brett LeVecchio
(212) 573-0555
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