Little Fifty celebrates eighth year as kickoff to Little 500 weekend
It's 6 p.m. on April 22, the Thursday before the 60th annual Little 500, Indiana University's legendary bike race.
Photo by Aaron Bernstein
The runners of Little Fifty compete in 25 teams of four to see which team can run a 50-lap relay most quickly. The event celebrated its eighth year as the unofficial kickoff to Little 500 weekend in April.
While most of the Little 500 riders are resting their legs and relaxing before the big race, the athletes of Little Fifty are taking to the track to warm up. Tonight is the eighth-annual Little Fifty, a 50-lap relay that is slowly becoming the official kickoff of what is widely regarded as the greatest college weekend of the year.
The 2010 Little Fifty race took place April 22 at the Bloomington High School North track while IU's E.C. "Billy" Hayes Track was under construction. Any IU Bloomington undergraduate student who is a non-varsity runner can compete in the race in 25 teams of four. This year, the women's teams ran first, at 7 p.m., followed by the men's teams at 9 p.m.
Winners of this year's race were two independent teams, Team Crimson (women) and Los Corredores (men), both of which came in second during pre-race qualifications.
Team Crimson -- juniors Madeline Haller and Chelsea Sutton and freshmen Becky Boyle and Sarah Tuner -- won the race with a time of 1:08:08. For Haller and Sutton, the third time was a charm; this was their third time competing in the event as teammates.
Photo by Aaron Bernstein
Team Crimson celebrates its first Little Fifty win following the eighth annual race.
"My teammates and I have worked so hard and put in so many hours of training in order to do well," said Sutton. "The feeling of winning the race after three years of competing is awesome."
Team Los Corredores, made up of sophomore Andrew Schroyer and freshmen Michael Nussa, Dan Phistry and Kyle Brehm, took the win with a time of 55:14. This was the first year that Los Corredores competed in the race.
"I thought it was really cool winning Little Fifty as a freshman. I knew we would be up there since three of us were coming off really competitive high school track seasons and we would be in fairly good shape," said Brehm. "What I'm even more excited about is how we're so young as a whole: three freshmen and one sophomore. I think we can do some real damage in years to come."
For more information about Little Fifty, see https://www.iusf.indiana.edu/little_fifty/index.html.
--By University Communications arts intern Madeline Haller
This story was originally published May 20, 2010.
