Behrman 5k raises funds

A cloud of color hung over the southern foot of the Student Recreational Sports Center Saturday morning as runners completed the Jill Behrman 5-kilometer run.

About 2,000 people came out for the second color run incarnation of the JB5k, now in its 14th year.

Recreational Sports staff energized the crowd of runners before the race with a dance led by five SRSC employees with music provided by DJ Rasul Mowatt, a professor of recreation, parks and tourism studies in the School of Public Health.

Event staff threw cornstarch-based color powder at runners at three locations along the route.

Additional packets were distributed to the runners as they crossed the finish line.

The race began at 11 a.m. and runners began crossing the finish line 20 minutes later.

Runners filtered in consistently for the next hour as the festivities continued.

The event was put on in honor of Jill Behrman, an IU student and Campus Recreational Sports employee who disappeared in 2000 and is believed to be a murder victim.

Various campus organizations sponsored the event and set up information booths.

Registration and sponsorship raised money for the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship, as well as the sexual assault awareness fund and a self-defense workshop, event staff member Shelby Darnell said.

Last year’s Jill Behrman 5k race was its first year as a color run.

“A few staff members did the national color run to find out how they did it,” Darnell said.

The first 2,500 to register received complimentary white JB5k shirts and white wayfarer-style sunglasses, according to the website. Runners wore the sunglasses to shield their eyes from the powder.

Freshman Damon Webb was the first runner to cross the finish line.

The finishing runners returned to the dance area for cardio hip-hop and zumba, enhanced by a color launch in which participants simultaneously threw their color powder in the air.

Mowatt is the Union Board faculty representative and participates in several campus events like the 5k, he said. Saturday was his second time  the event, and he has attended in the past, he said.

Hundreds of color-covered runners posed for photos following the race.

Julian Ramos, an IU senior in the musical theater program, said he looked forward to sharing his photos of the colorful event.

He compared the event to other benefit runs, and said he feels the anti-violence cause was meaningful.

“This run is about violence, and in our generation, that’s a huge thing,” Ramos said. “To make it a color run is really cool.”

Follow reporter Alec Priester @alecpriester.