If the Ohio State football team performs like the participants in the Beat Michigan 5K yesterday afternoon, all of Columbus will rejoice. The Tau Beta Pi engineering honorary fraternity held their third annual run to help Neighborhood Services Inc., a local charity in Columbus.
As a start to Beat Michigan Week, Tau Beta Pi held their biggest philanthropy event of the year. All the proceeds raised will go to benefit Neighborhood Services Inc., which is the only local food and clothing pantry in the campus area. They serve about 1,700 local residents in the campus area, giving them food, clothes and emergency services. They also do special events during the holidays, such as food baskets and supplies. Last year, the race raised more than $8,000 for local residents in need.
Beating out the pack of 340 participants was Kevin Bruffy, with a time of 15:39. He was followed closely by Brandon Middleton, who finished second with a time of 15:57. Jordan Payne, finished third at the 17:18 mark.
The top female runner was Nadine Gerhardstei, with a time of 19:18. The top finish for a team included Payne, Craig Luehrs, Michael Allan, Mike Parry and Geoff Duresha.
As the fraternity's philanthropy chair, Jerry Hsieh, a computer science and engineering major, helped organize the event. Hsieh said 25 members of the fraternity volunteered their time yesterday.
The fraternity starts putting the race together during the spring and finalizes everything during the fall.
"We try to have everything ready by October and start marketing by then," Hsieh said. "We got started a little late this year, and not as many people had pre-registered as had in the past."
Hsieh said only 300 people pre-registered before yesterday, and about 600 runners ended up participating.
Andrew Theiss, an electrical and computer engineering major, participated in his first race yesterday. Theiss, who runs regularly, said he was happy with his time of 21:21.
"This is my first 5K of the year because I missed one earlier this year, so I was happy to run with my friends today and did pretty well," Theiss said.
The course started on the east side of Ohio Stadium and ended in front of Dreese Laboratories on Neil Avenue. The five-kilometer race cut through the heart of OSU's campus, running down Neil, onto 12th Avenue, around Mirror Lake and into the Oval, showing off the landmarks at OSU. The race ended with food and drinks for all participants and a raffle with gift cards from local area businesses.
The CD 101 ice cream truck was also on hand to pump out tunes as joggers passed by.
"We are here to play some music and help keep the runners going through to the finish," said Brian Bloom, who works in promotions at CD 101.
Helping Hsieh with the event was Marisa Grilliot, an industrial and systems engineering major, who was in charge of marketing to the public and serves as corresponding secretary of the fraternity.
"We put out fliers and chalked, as well as went to gyms and workout centers to get the word out," Grilliot said. "We talked to sponsors and were able to get CD101 to help us, and they even came here. We also used list serves to e-mail people about the race."
Throughout the week leading up to the game between OSU and Michigan, the two schools compete in a blood drive.
"We tried to get Michigan to have a 5K, but they did not have one this year," Grilliot said. "Our goal was to have the race be like the blood drive competition that goes on throughout the week. We contacted the Tau Beta Pi chapter at Michigan, but they have fallen through and did not have a race this year."
The race yesterday was the first of many events happening on campus this week to celebrate the meeting between the longtime rivals. Beat Michigan Week will continue all week until the game on Saturday.
For more information about Beat Michigan Week and upcoming events, visit www.ohiounion.com/bmw/.
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