The week has finally arrived in Bloomington, Indiana. Students at IU look forward to Little 500 all year. Commonly known as Little Five, it is the most intense intramural sport on campus. Each year, more than 25,000 people attend the races, and everyone on campus parties all week.
Little 500, now in its 60th year, is the nation’s largest collegiate intramural cycling event, and was featured in an Academy Award-winning film, Breaking Away, more than 30 years ago. College students train all year round for a chance to compete in the Little 500. In 1997, Lance Armstrong attended the race and said, “I’ve attended Super Bowls, World Series and the Monaco Grand Prix, but the coolest event I ever attended was the Little 500.”
The little unknown about the race is that the proceeds are used for working student scholarships at IU. Thousands of dollars are given to hard-working, motivated students that work during the school year.
Mark Cuban, an Indiana alum and the current owner of the Dallas Mavericks also owns the television network HDNet. They will be showing the live broadcast of the men’s race on Saturday. The race can also be heard on the student station here at IU.
Riders put so much time into the event in order to participate. They have mandatory track practice, meetings and then unique events each weekend in April leading up to the race. These events give cyclists a competitive feel on the track while also measuring their team against one another. In fact over spring break, most teams spend the whole time training together hard core for the race. Yes, it’s that intense.
Those not competing in the race have plenty of festivities all week to stay occupied. Many students take the week off to party. Some professors understand, while others do not. All Greek houses are paired with a sorority, which consists of parties all week. It is typical for houses to take advantage of great weather and Lake Monroe, choosing to go out on boats for an afternoon.
And you cannot forget about the concerts. Each year there are multiple artists making their way to Bloomington to put on a show. In the past there have been artists like O.A.R., Three 6 Mafia, Nelly and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This year does not disappoint. The university is bringing in The Flaming Lips. Phi Kappa Psi hosts Kelley James, LMFAO and Mike Posner on Thursday night. And on Friday Jeremiah, Sammy Adams and the infamous Snoop Dogg perform. It is only right for big name artists to show up for “the party.”
This week has been great to this point. Everything has remained under control and Bloomington has been fortunate to have warm weather all month. But the real weekend will get started tomorrow.
Here’s to a great weekend and an even better race.