--- title: Meet the Man Who Went Viral for Jogging Shirtless in Chicago description: The man who melted the Internet when he appeared shirtless on a Chicago news station’s live report is on the hunt for the perfect girl. canonical: https://time.com/4150685/shirtless-jogger-chicago-viral/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T00:55:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:50.476Z og:title: Meet the Man Who Went Viral for Jogging Shirtless in Chicago og:description: He's saving himself for marriage og:url: https://time.com/4150685/shirtless-jogger-chicago-viral/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt013cfa4d7578d89c/6988758aa988ca62b36b5c00/10686784_10153665917012138_8225533450567493529_n.jpg?branch=production&width=960&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 960 og:image:height: 540 og:image:alt: 10686784_10153665917012138_8225533450567493529_n og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Man Who Went Viral for Jogging Shirtless in Chicago twitter:description: He's saving himself for marriage twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt013cfa4d7578d89c/6988758aa988ca62b36b5c00/10686784_10153665917012138_8225533450567493529_n.jpg?branch=production&width=960&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Man Who Went Viral for Jogging Shirtless in Chicago > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f7fb067c-59b5-4c1f-9bfc-42951882c81c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 5 Elements of A Viral Video [Watch (HLS stream): 5 Elements of A Viral Video](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-06-22. 5 Elements of A Viral Video_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 16, 2015 12:55 AM UTC  Ethan Renoe went viral after WGN 9 interviewed him in the rain for a live segment. Ethan Renoe went viral after WGN 9 interviewed him in the rain for a live segment. Ethan Renoe  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 16, 2015 12:55 AM UTC The man who melted the Internet this week when he [appeared on a Chicago news station’s live weather report during a shirtless run](http://time.com/4147495/shirtless-runner-ethan-renoe-wgn9/) has been inundated with thousands of messages from women on social media, he says. The video of Ethan Renoe went viral after WGN 9 interviewed the 24-year-old in the rain for a live segment Sunday. The Colorado resident, who was visiting friends in the Windy City, said it was “too wet to wear a shirt” and threw in a call to female viewers: “I’m also single,” he added. “I come home from the run, and I’m checking Twitter, and I have a bunch of marriage proposals from a bunch of random girls,” Renoe said in an interview. “Man, its been crazy. I never in a million years expected that.” Renoe, an aspiring professional photographer, says he has been single since 2012 and his most recent relationship lasted 2 months. “I have so many random, quirky things about me,” he says. “I guess I just haven’t found that one girl. I just haven’t met the one girl yet, and that’s OK.” Besides running in the rain, Renoe loves traveling—he’s already visited six continents—and likes to play guitar and write songs. He’s also a personal trainer who “obviously” loves exercising and is a devout Christian. Renoe currently lives with his parents in their Colorado home after graduating from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago with a communications degree. He said he wants to travel to Asia soon for humanitarian causes. “The plan was to go to Asia for a while and just travel around by myself or find an orphanage to work with,” he said. “I’ve traveled a lot and I’ve met little kids who were eating dirt because there’s no food for them in Nigeria, India.” Renoe said he hasn’t responded to any of his social media admirers, but he did go on a blind date about two weeks ago, which a friend set up. “There wasn’t any chemistry,” the Coloradan says. “It would be awesome to find that someone,” Renoe added. “No one has risen above the ranks yet. Ultimately what it comes down to is chemistry; you and this other person set each other on fire.” ## Transcript [ NOISE ] What makes a video go viral? Here's our guess. Mishka, I love you. [ NOISE ] Number one, cute animals. [ LAUGH ] Charlie, Charlie bit me. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ UNKNOWN ], we're going to Disneyland. Oh, my god. Number two, cute kids. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Number 3, remixes. [ MUSIC ] Whoa, oh my God, oh my God. [ LAUGH ] Oh my God. Whoo. Number four, spontaneity. Look at all those Number five. Cute kids and cute animals. Put this all together and it will certainly end up on your Facebook feed. 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