“I wouldn’t say that it is canceled,” Jordan Bailey, IUSF Little 500 Race Director, said. “We are trying to shift our efforts to be inclusive to the entire student population.”
Little Fifty began in 2003. Since 2008, the participation in the 4 x 400, 50-lap relay has been down, ?Bailey said.
Each year, the relay took place at the Billy Hayes Track about the same week as Little 500.
This location was isolated, Bailey said, and only a small network of people were aware of the event.
This year’s 5K will wind through campus.
“There will be more visibility to what they’re trying to do,” ?Bailey said.
The chip-timed 5K will still allow for competition, Bailey said, as well as accommodate participants who want to walk the course.
Participants can sign up as individuals or with an organization. Though Little Fifty was limited to four members per team, the 5k will not have a cap. Every finisher will receive a medal.
Awards will be given to the top three overall men and women, as well as the top finishing men and women in each of six age categories.Team awards will be scored using a cross country scoring system, where the top four finisher's places will be added and the team with the lowest score places highest.
There are three categories for team winners: men, women and co-ed.
Transitioning from the relay to the 5K required a lot of planning, Bailey explained.
“Little Fifty is easy from an events perspective,” he said. “To do the 5K we had to get our ducks in a row with the City of Bloomington, our medical team, IU Athletics and the IU Police ?Department.”
In past years, IUSF offered a call-out meeting for Little Fifty runners in ?February.
Bailey said he began letting potential runners and coaches know about the transition when they began asking about the call-out. So far, he said, he has ?received positive reactions. mj
“We had been talking about this change in the fall semester,” Bailey said. “But we didn’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot and not be able to go back to Little Fifty if we didn’t have approval.”
The 5K will be April 18, the weekend before the bike race, allowing faculty and staff to participate as well, ?he said. Registration will open Feb. 28. The cost of the race is $20 until April 10th and $35 the day of the race.
“Running, unlike the bike race where you have to go buy a bike and equipment, is a pretty welcoming sport,” Bailey said. “Really all you need is running shoes.”
Bailey said he’s hopeful the transition will encourage a wider range of runners.
“Every winning (Little Fifty) team was entirely comprised of Indiana University Run Club members, which is yet another deterrent of participation for other teams when the same teams win every year,” Bailey said in an email. “The committee organizing the 5K is optimistic that we will have approximately 500 ?participants in our first ?year.”
