3,000 IU Mini Marathon runners ready, set for weekend full of events

After serving in Guam, Singapore, Japan and Australia during six years of service in the Navy, junior Eric Rogers finds himself striving to prove his endurance in Bloomington.\n"I want to run a mini (marathon) to prove I can do it," Rogers said. "And it's helping a good cause."\nThree thousand people from 28 states are expected to participate Saturday in the 13.1-mile mini marathon to provide scholarship funds for cancer survivors.\nThe inaugural IU Circle of Life Mini Marathon will begin at 8:05 a.m. Saturday, starting on Woodlawn Avenue.\nCircle of Life president Kevin MacCauley said the mini marathon is the first project for the student organization, which was founded in fall 2004. He said the mini marathon has been in the works since the organizers started meeting in January 2005. \n"Mini marathons are extremely popular and have a trend of growth right now," MacCauley said. "Benefit runs tend to have more people, and you have a great time while helping a great cause."\nHe said Circle of Life went to the IU Cancer Center and asked what it would need to do to establish a scholarship to help cancer survivors. \n"It's difficult for somebody to leave the security of a job and health care, and then pay tuition," MacCauley said.\nHe said the Circle of Life scholarship is endowed at the IU Foundation and will give a cancer survivor a full-ride scholarship to any of IU's eight campuses. The award will be named the Bill Z. Littlefield Scholarship for Survivors after a Kelley School faculty member who died from cancer this summer and the first scholarship will be given once the endowment is filled, which should be in five or six years.\nMacCauley said Circle of Life asked Littlefield if the scholarship could be in his honor and he accepted before passing away last year.\nSophomore Alexa Tarter said she is participating in the event because she wants to run a marathon (26.2 miles) before she turns 21.\n"I'm really excited because I've never raced a distance like this before," she said. "I think it's really cool that our college is doing this."\nTarter said she has been running in community events since she was in seventh grade. She ran cross country and track in high school, and last year she ran a couple of five-kilometer races and one 10-kilometer event. She said her training has included running, cycling and swimming.\nRogers said he's been training alone for the past eight weeks. He incorporates endurance runs, strength conditioning and sprint workouts -- where he sprints until he passes two telephone poles and then jogs until he passes one -- repeating this pattern for three miles.\nHe said his grandfather died from lung cancer, but added that cancer affects everyone.\n"They've been an absolutely monumental role not only financially, but also in (planning)," MacCauley said.\nMacCauley said the participants will receive packets, like "goody bags," including a T-shirt, race number and time chip -- an electronic device that records the runners' place and time when they finish. He said participants should pick up their packets the morning of the race or at Friday night's pasta party. The party is from 4 to 8 p.m., and admission is $5 at Bucceto's Smiling Teeth.\nAfter the races Saturday morning, an awards ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the John Mellencamp Pavilion.\nMacCauley said others are still welcome to join the races, and spectators can donate to the scholarship fund at most of the weekend's events. The mini marathon has an entry fee of $25 for students and $30 for nonstudents, and the one-mile Fun Run and 5-kilometer race cost $18 each. For more information go to www.iumini.com