By Kelly Rondeau

Three major charities — The World Wildlife Fund, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and ninemillion.org– benefited from the Nike + Human Race 10K on Sunday, an event billed as the World’s Biggest Race that involved 25 races in 25 cities around the globe.

Thousands of runners turned out for the 10K in the North American host cities of New York City, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and Austin, as well as around the world in other major cities such as Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vancouver, Lima, Instanbul, Singapore, Melbourne, Warsaw, and Seoul. Collectively, the runners logged more than 3 million miles, according to Nike, with each mile producing more money toward the three charities.

Among the athletes and celebrities who showed their support by running in Austin were seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong; Olympic Gold Medalist swimmers, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen (just back from Bejiing); Hollywood actor and organic enthusiast, Matthew McConaughey, and Emmy award winner musician Ben Harper.

Nike serves as an active member of the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Saver program, and has partnered with the WWF as it tries to become more environmentally sensitive and efficient with the resources it uses. The corporate giant recently completed measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from its contracted manufacturer and shipping operations, and as a next step, Nike will focus on reducing the carbon footprint of these contracted operations.

The money raised from the race has yet to be tallied, but will support Armstrong’s LiveStrong program, which aims to fight cancer through healthier lifestyles; the WWF’s conservation and habitat preservation efforts and ninemillion.org’s goals to give nine million children better access to education, sport and technology by 2010. Ninemillion.org partners with Nike and Microsoft.

For more on how the charity dollars will be used, and particularly how the money may be used to fight global warming, see the Nike + Human Race website. Runners can also see their results on this Nike web page.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media