IU uses 5K as training run for season

There are few times in sports when fans are able to share the same field as collegiate and professional athletes.\nAt the third annual IU Community 5K, several members of the women's cross country team competed in a field of 75 men and women, including a number of local residents.\nRunning in the event is fun for the Hoosiers and gives them preparation for races on the home course later this year, said IU coach Judy Wilson.\n"We don't really publicize it, and people might seem kind of intimidated running with the college runners, but many people would be fine coming out," Wilson said.\nThough the course offers its challenges, many people find themselves coming back year after year, including three-time participant Mark Bauman.\n"This is a fun event to run," Bauman said in a statement. "It is a challenging course to run. When you are running it, you ask yourself, 'Why am I doing this?' After you get done though, you know why you do it."\nOnly five Hoosier runners participated in the event. Sophomore Stephanie Greer led the team with a time of 19:16.00 and finished in 28th place overall, second for female competitors. \n"Coach didn't want us to overrun the race, and most people ran it in their training shoes," Greer said. "She wanted us to make sure that we could stay together as long as we could."\nSophomore Kristina Tracka (19:31.00), junior Maura Ratcliff (20:30.00), junior Jackie Davis (20:43.00) and freshman Bliss Cook (21:02.00) rounded out the race for the Hoosiers.\n"We did what we needed to do as far as a steady tempo run workout. We were trying to run somewhat together for two or three kilometers because some people have a tendency to go out too fast on this course," Wilson said.\nSince the event was seen as a practice meet, Wilson said, several of the top Hoosier runners, including seniors Jessica Gall and Lindsay Hattendorf and sophomore Wendi Robinson, didn't participate in the meet.\nThe Hoosiers will participate in the Indiana Open on Saturdayat the IU cross country course. The meet will include rivals Purdue and Michigan, who won the Big Ten title last year.\nBecause IU is hosting the Big Ten Championships, Wilson said next weekend's meet will serve as a preview for the race. However, teams such as Illinois, Penn State and Minnesota won't be participating next week, and Wilson said she sees this as a disadvantage for runners inexperienced with the IU course. \n"I think it's going to help the teams that are going to come in and run on it because it gives them an upper hand on the event," Wilson said. "You really need to run this course to know how to run it. It's not like other courses where you can show up and the gun goes off and you're OK. This one, if you don't run it the right way, it's going to come back and hit you"