Jan 19, 2008 1:48 pm US/Central
Bikers, Streakers Brave Bitter Cold
Bike To Work Day Held Downtown, Annual Polar Bear Run Come To U. of C.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Temperatures were hovering in the single digits Friday morning, but that did not stop some people from enjoying outside activity – in some cases without getting bundled up with even a T-shirt.
On Friday downtown, the Chicago Bicycle Federation organized its Winter Bike to Work Day. They encourage people to bike to work and stop at Daley Plaza between 7 and 9 a.m. Friday for hot chocolate and Eli's Cheesecake.
Many people took them up on the offer, despite temperatures of 8 degrees at O'Hare International Airport before dawn.
The date commemorates the 23rd anniversary of Chicago's coldest recorded day, Jan. 20, 1985. At O'Hare that day, the air temperature was -27, with wind chills in some places as low as -93.
Meanwhile at the University of Chicago, an annual winter tradition that does not involve a stitch of clothing is in progress Friday. First, as part of the annual weeklong Kuviasungnerk winter festival, U. of C. students and faculty went to Promontory Point, on Lake Michigan off 55th Street, to "coax" the sunrise in an event dubbed the Salute to the Sun.
But the most outrageous activity at the U. of C. campus came Friday afternoon, when hundreds of completely naked or scantily clad students ran across the U. of C.'s main quadrangle.
Temperatures on Saturday dipped to -3 at O'Hare International Airport.
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