Alii Drive to close Thursday morning for Underpants Run

The annual Underpants Run will be held Thursday morning in Kailua Village.

During the charitable event, now in its 18th year, Alii Drive will be closed between 7:20 and 8 a.m. between King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel and Uncle Billy’s Kona Bay Hotel, near Hualalai Road. The run starts at 7:30 a.m.

Hundreds of people strip down to their skivvies for the Underpants Run, a brief fun run that raises money for Big Island charities and has become a tradition in the days leading up to the IRONMAN World Championship.

In 1998, Chris Danahy, Tim Morris and Paul Huddle conceived the Underpants Run as a protest against IRONMAN World Championship athletes who were not working out and wearing Speedos in all the wrong places, such as stores and restaurants. Since then, the Underpants Run has evolved into a much-anticipated pre-race spectacle.