Flora hosts half marathon

FLORA, Ind. (WLFI) - After months of controversy and questions about whether it would even take place, the Home of Purdue Half Marathon began in Flora at 8:00 a.m. Sunday.

As the finish line was crossed, the first Home of Purdue Half Marathon - or as the T-shirts read, "Half Marathon" - ended. The runners completed the 13 mile course through Flora without issue.

Flora Police Chief Paul Redmon said, "From a police standpoint everything is going very well. We haven't had any incidents. The officers have been manning the intersections along with the volunteer fire department."

Half marathon volunteer Jake Franklin said about 80 volunteers showed up for race day. He said volunteer recruitment and training went smoothly, just like the race.

"The cool thing about running is, you can do it anywhere. Like the Hog Jog, this definitely has some potential," said Franklin. 

Moving the race to Flora worked, but race creator Dean Reinke said he wants to move it back to the original course he outlined, through Lafayette and West Lafayette. He said his goal for this Flora race was to open some eyes to the half-marathon experience.

"Our hope is that, our first effort saying, 'Okay, we are happy to go ahead and drop the name and trademark, so let's sit down and see how we can then go back to where we all agreed a year ago to have this event,'" Reinke said.

Reinke said it is still unclear to him why West Lafayette, Lafayette and Purdue University pulled support from the race. He said he is aware of the lawsuit filed by Purdue University to stop the use of the name 'Purdue' in the Home of Purdue Half Marathon.

"We've not been served any kind of law suit, but we heard that they were going to file one, but we are pretty close to a resolution. We're announcing today that we are formally dropping the name of 'Home of Purdue' and the trademark which we own and legally we could pursue it. But for us it's a first step forward at trying to come up with a resolution so next year we can get back to the original course we had designed," said Reinke.

Reinke said about 70 percent of the 1,000 registered runners showed up. Reinke would not say how much money was lost or gained by moving the race, but he said the majority of the runners that did show up were supportive and would like to see the half marathon return to Tippecanoe County.