Runners are in grave peril

Dear Fellow Harriers:\nOn the eve of the Inaugural Little 50 at Indiana University on April 13th 2003, I have grievous cause for concern over the intended use of traditional lane-track batons in the running version of Howdy Wilcox's Little 500. Of special concern is the potential for injury to external vitals (gums & teeth, eye sockets, and nasal septums) as well as internal organ injuries due to a mass of runners falling on upturned batons ... and each other.\nThe nature of the Little Five competition is one of pack racing on an open track with 33 athletes going into the same turn at the same time. The en-mass falls witnessed in the Bicycle competition is a logical precedent for the the predicted happenstance in the Baton race. Certainly the use of the event-specific "track bike" limits the degree of injury in the Little 500. With this precedent premise in hand, aristotelian logic deduces that such a safer event-specific track baton be designated for the running of the Inaugural Little 50.\nThe baton race is nothing less than a running version of the bike race. It's a 50-lap spectacle, sure to be an instant American classic with the same Red, White, and Blue vein of its own inspirator: The Brickyard 400. Certainly safety is concern number one for its collegiate reenactment. \nWith rubber being the primary racing composite for the Indy 500, the Little 500, and the Brickyard 400; then tire-tube rubber seems to be the natural selection for the construction of an event-specific Little 50 vehicle: the Wilcox X-26 tire-tube baton. Such a tubal implement is safe to bend, durable to drop, simple to construct, comfortable to hold, and easy to exchange. Most importantly, the tubal rubber baton provides a forgiving vehicle for droppage and steppage upon the all-weather track surface without causing serious injury. Due to this shock-absorbing quality, it is logical to deduce that runners will be more apt to "run over" a dropped implement, rather than side-stepping an unforgiving metallic baton, creating greater potential for mass collisions ... and gruesome injury.\nLet us not forget that the traditional metallic track baton was designed for laned "sprint" exchanges, rather than for open-track distance running exchanges. With the world-first inauguration of 33 baton-wielding competitors running en masse into one single open-lane turn, the potential for injury only can be predicted by the only other race of its kind on the face of the Earth: The Little 500.\nWithout doubt, bicycles cannot be made of rubber, making for a safer track competition. However, track batons can be constructed of bendable rubber, providing a forgiving vehicle of contact upon ankles, hips, thoraxes, eyes, ears, noses, and throats. Race safety should be of utmost concern to the host of the Little 50, the IU Student Foundation. \nThe mere presence of EMS personnel should not present a false sense of safety for race competitors. A paramedic cannot reverse the lifelong damage caused by a dropped baton on a fractured ankle, damaged liver, disfigured eye socket or a detached nasal septum. The safety of Little 50 competitors is not in the hands of legally-mandated paramedics. The safety of Little 50 harriers is in the hands of its competitors. I should think that inner-tube rubber would be the preferred composite of choice for accident potential in the inauguration of the World's FIRST 33-runner track relay. Traditional track batons were not designed for this unique type of event. Just as the Little 500 has its own event-specific track bike for safety, its Little 50 off-spring warrants the same preventive measure of event-specific vehicle construct ... and life preservation.