A few weeks ago, the IU Bloomington campus was covered in color as runners raced through the most beautiful parts of campus. In doing so, they were remembering someone who, all on her own, brought color to the lives of those around her.
The Jill Behrman Color the Campus 5K Run took place on April 2, 2022 at the Student Recreational Sports Center. The run’s course totaled 2.8 miles. It took racers around campus and doused them with colored powder at five “color stations,” located at key points on the IU campus.
To provide the color in the run’s name, volunteers threw an eco-friendly cornstarch with food-grade coloring at racers, according to the website. Runners were encouraged to wear white so the color would show.
Registration began at 9:30 a.m. with a warmup at 10:30 a.m. At 10:50, Ladies First A Cappella sang the national anthem. The race began at 11 a.m. and, a half hour later, the “post-race party” began. The race concluded with team awards and a final color launch.
The party is important to the race’s character. The color run’s website is packed with racer testimonials, calling the race, “a great break from school and stress,” “such a blast,” and even “one of the best experiences [they]’ve had in [their] two years at IU.”
While the event website states that most 5k participants are students, anyone can run the race. Students who live in campus residence halls’s registration was reduced, as the Residence Hall Association covered a portion of the fee. Runners could also register as teams, with prizes for the largest team in categories such as IU Campus Department, IU Residence Hall and Friends.
The race is named after Jill Behrman, a former IU student and employee of IU Recreational Sports. Jill grew up in Bloomington and was involved in sports, including but not limited to volleyball, softball, basketball and club soccer, her whole life.
Marilyn Behrman, mother of Jill Behrman, describes her daughter when she was younger.
She got involved with a Bloomington-based biking group, deCycles Indiana, in high school. The group rode cross-country bike trips and, in 1999, the summer after Jill’s senior year, they biked from Bloomington to Atlantic City, New Jersey.
But Jill was adamant about never biking after dark. So when, in May 2000, Jill left for a bike ride and the sky got dark, her mother started to worry.
Jill Behrman never returned. Her bike was found 10 miles from home and, three years later, her body was discovered in a wooded area in Morgan County. Ellettsville resident John Myers was arrested and convicted of Jill’s murder. His conviction was briefly overturned in 2019 before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision.
A young Jill rides a carousel at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis in 1985.
Jill on the day of her kindergarten graduation in 1987.
Jill with her friend Rachel before a volleyball practice at their high school, Bloomington South High School, in 1996.
Jill stands next to her bike as part of a deCycles trip in 1999.
The Behrman family, taken fall 1999.
IU Recreational Sports’ run was named after Jill in October of 2000. It’s gone through many names since, starting as the Jill Behrman Run for the Endzone. The important part, though, remains: to “keep the memory of Jill alive and to bring awareness to issues of violence in our community,” according to an IDS events page.
The event costs $30-35 for normal registration, and all proceeds benefit personal safety workshops and other Recreational Sports programs on campus throughout the year.
Some of the proceeds also go to the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship, given out by IU Recreational Sports. According to the website, scholarship recipients must be of sophomore standing with at least one year of involvement with Recreational Sports and a GPA of 2.5 or greater. The scholarship also contains requirements for the recipient’s character. They have to show that they’re similar to Jill: demonstrate leadership, responsibility, initiative and a willingness to go above and beyond expectations.
