INDIANAPOLIS — Tens of thousands of runners will be in Indianapolis for the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon Saturday morning, but there are only five runners that have participated since the very beginning.
The alumni include Jerry Bates, Eugene Lausch, Alva Such, Michael Vollmer and John Hostetter.
The first Indianapolis Mini-Marathon was in 1977.
“I think most of us realized we can’t quit this thing. We got to keep going,” Bates said.
Bates now lives in North Carolina but has been driving 10 hours to Indianapolis every May for the past 19 years.
The 71-year-old said he first ran the race after he was dared by a group of friends. He signed up the morning of the race.
“I’d never run more than a mile in my life. I played high school sports, and I decided to run it. The night before the event, I went out and bought my first ever pair of running shoes,” Bates said. “I was able to run it in less than two hours, and I didn’t walk once, and I was like, ‘This isn’t so bad.’”
Since then, he hasn’t stopped running. Many members of his family have also joined him.
“It’s always been coming back home to Indiana for me,” he said. “Our families are all here, and it’s been important to me. I always felt like it kicked off the summer.”
It’s a Hoosier tradition that Such also got pulled into his first year.
“I never ran before. I could barely run the Mini-Marathon. It almost killed me. I was sore for three months,” Such said.
During those 13.1 miles in 1977, the 68-year-old fell in love with the Mini. He still has his medal from the first race.
Then, 10 years ago, Such was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which affected his mobility.
But Such hasn’t let it slow him down.
“As long as I can crawl across the line, I’ll do it,” Such said.
For Lausch, he loved to run when he was younger.
“I was cut from the basketball team. (Running) was the only sport I was really any good at,” Lausch said.
The 84-year-old now walks 22 miles a week.
But in 2019, Lausch fractured his hip after being hit by a car. He said that May, he still participated in the Mini-Marathon.
“I was actually pushed for six one-mile segments with permission from the 500 organizers, and then I walked 7.1 miles,” Lausch said. “It was important for me to do that, I think primarily to show toughness.”
For many of these alumni, the Mini is the only race they participate in, and they said they don’t have any plans of quitting.
“I have to walk 13 miles. I think I can do that. I think I was more worried when I was younger and trying to hit a specific time,” Lausch said.
“The last mile, I’m usually like, 'I’m never doing this again,' but as soon as I cross the finish line, I’m ready to start again,” Such said.
Every year, they all look forward to the volunteers and Hoosiers that line the course.
“That’s really what makes the race. We run 13 miles, and at every turn, there are so many folks out there, and they are cheering and yelling the whole time,” Bates said.