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How far would you go to release the Epstein files? Some Tempe runners ran a half-marathon.
If you saw some runners making odd loops around Tempe’s Arizona State University campus this weekend, they may not have been out for their morning run. Or at least, not just out for their morning run.
You might have caught a few runners using Strava, the running app, to spell out a demand to the Department of Justice: RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW.
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In a post on the Strava subreddit, one runner shared the rather interesting route they and some friends took during a 13-mile jaunt. Starting on Ash Avenue and University Drive, the runners ran toward Tempe Town Lake before making a loop back toward campus on Mill Avenue. Then they looped back and forth along University Drive south of “A” Mountain to spell out “Release.”
They hoofed out the “The” near one of the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology buildings north of Noble Library and toward Old Main. The spelling of “Epstein” required looping around Hayden Lawn and winding up at Interdisciplinary and Science Technology IV, or ISTB-4. They traced “Files” in reverse order, running around the school’s intramural fields and main gym, before looping past the Memorial Union and Gammage.
The run finished with the word “Now” south of Rural Road and Apache Boulevard near the Adelphi Commons dorms. After a 13.65-mile jog throughout ASU’s Tempe campus, the demand message was complete.
While some Redditors were fans of the user’s effort — “Awesome!” wrote one — others criticized the user’s glacial pace of 14 minutes per mile. One user likened the half-marathon to “a long walk at least.”
“The release will be as slow as that ‘run,’” another user wrote.
The release of the Epstein files — the catch-all name for the DOJ’s investigation into deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — is getting closer to reality. Last week, Congress passed the bill to compel the DOJ to release its investigative material on Epstein, with the entire Arizona delegation voting in favor. After previously opposing the bill, possibly because he’s expected to be mentioned multiple times in the files, President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law. Now, the DOJ must make documents related to Epstein public by Dec. 19.
That isn’t fast enough for a few Strava runners, though. And in turn, they don’t seem to be fast enough to impress the Strava community.
