Little 500 not just a man's race anymore

At the stroke of midnight on the eve of her biggest and last Little 500 race in 1999, Megan Quigley's mind and body were still. The only restless energy was from a gentle breeze that stirred loose strands of her hair. \nNestled in a soft spot of grass overlooking the track, she thought of the women before her who had fought relentlessly to participate in what the IU Student Foundation first claimed was "a race too strenuous for women."\nQuigley is now the assistant director of the Women's Little 500, along with graduate student Alex Ihnen, who is the Little 500 coordinator. Quigley and Ihnen have spent all semester working with more than 30 Riders Council members and the IU Student Foundation Fall Cycling Steering Committee to publicize the races more than ever. Quigley said she is determined to fill the women's field with 33 teams this year, a feat that has yet to be accomplished during its 14-year history.\nThis year, Riders Council has circled the sidewalks of the Arboretum on Mongoose bikes and will soon be sporting shirts that say, "I Need Women" or "I Need Men." The goal is to increase awareness of the race and encourage women to attend the first Women's Open House Tuesday. The event takes place at 7 p.m. at the Showalter House starting and will include a multi-media presentation on the race.\nIhnen said compared to the rest of the country, IU cycling is balanced in regard to opportunities for male and female athletes.\n"Women Little 500 riders are stars on campus, as well as the men," Ihnen said. "People know who won the men's and the women's race.\n"Here, more than the rest of the country, women who ride bikes are thought of as cool. Even at Purdue, women who ride bikes are weird. At IU, women say, 'I want to be like her.'"\nQuigley said, "Any average Jane can do it."\nKerry Hellmuth, who is riding with the Carpe Diem team in Italy, started out as a Hoosier and was on the first women's team to win the race in 1988 for Willkie Team Sprint. In the documentary film about the Little 500, "Free Wheels," Hellmuth said, "I had gotten something out of that experience that told me, 'Hey I can do this, and I can do what I want at any age,' and so here I am at age 30, a professional cyclist."\nBesides the possibility of riding professionally after college, the Little 500 changes people's lives. Quigley recently stepped into the newly created position of assistant director mainly because she felt a void. \n"I had opened Pandora's box of accomplishments," Quigley said. "How will you ever find personal satisfaction again? That's why I'm back here. I couldn't find it to save my life."\nQuigley's main goals this year are to create a community and atmosphere with a more robust experience for women than what they have experienced in the past. Quigley went directly to the Fall Riders Council and encouraged them to do two things.\nFirst, she challenged them to attend the new Women's Training Rides that leave every Tuesday and Friday at 3:30 p.m. from the Wilcox House. These are moderately paced rides for veterans that help build community between teams that Quigley feels did not exist before. Second, Quigley emphasized simply talking with women about riding.\nIn addition, Riders Council supported Dance Marathon with a roll-off between two men and three women who sweated it out on two wheels to see who could last the longest. After two hours of riding, the three women collectively chose to stop after they had surpassed the men by 45 minutes.\nFifteen years after IUSF dubbed the race as "too strenuous for women," it is the women who are increasingly outlasting the men. \n"The women show more determination than the men, as seen in the roll-off," Ihnen said.\nBesides "getting a peek at the person inside of you," as Quigley says will happen, many voices of the past speak poignantly about the race.\n"It is an event that presents such a wide range of possibilities for growth that even if a person participates for only one year, she will learn a great deal about herself," Kappa Alpha Theta coach Tom Schwoegler said. "She learns about self-motivation and perseverance, probably the two most valuable tools a person can possess. Someone told me once that you can never out-persevere a woman. I have seen this statement proved time and again, exemplified by women who grasped that fact that this is more than just a bike race."\nDuring an interview for the documentary film "Free Wheels", teammates Sara Gardner and Kristina Harnett, who rode for Landsharks in the early 1990s, highlighted what they had gained from racing.\n"[The race is] learning about leadership and helping others…I think they're lessons you can take away that will stay with you forever," Gardner said.\nSo with all of this year's hoopla and added marketing, will the women's race find more competitors? It is too soon to tell, Quigley said, but one thing is certain, Quigley will continue to persevere. "Even if it takes one woman at a time"