Circular marathon gives “running in circles” a new meaning

What do you get when you combine geeky mathematical and linguistic nuances with a love for running? For 18 fitness-minded coworkers at Cook Biotech, the answer is Circular Logic Marathon.

Circular Logic Marathon is the brainchild of Cook Biotech Vice President of Operations Joe Ely. As the name suggests, the Circular Logic Marathon is run in a loop. Participants may either run the entire marathon or run as relay teams, dividing the 26.2 miles in whatever way they choose. The race consists of a one-mile route through a park that runners circle 26 times (plus a single side trip of two tenths of a mile) to finish the marathon.

Circular tendencies

“The way that Joe designed the race to be run in one-mile loops is so unique,” said Chris Nelson, a fellow runner and Cook upstream product manager based at Cook Biotech. “You’re never far from your family. That’s not the case when you run in a regular marathon.” Chris, his wife, Sarah, and their daughter, Lydia, all ran in the race this year. Their son, Carter, also attended the event. The loop design of the race allowed them to spend the day together while still running in a marathon.

Joe conceived the idea of a circular marathon in 2011. While running a familiar route through a local city park in West Lafayette, Indiana, he realized that certain trails could be connected to form a loop that would be approximately one mile long. A little tweaking of the route and accurate measuring later, and the Circular Logic Marathon was born.

Joe has served as Circular Logic Marathon race director since the first running of the race, in 2012. As a Purdue engineer with self-described “nerdy tendencies,” Joe carried the marathon’s circular theme beyond the actual race route, adding a fun, geeky element to the entire experience.

“Since the course goes round and round without stopping, we make the text on the ribbon and medal do the same thing,” Joe said. On this year’s ribbon, a circular logic sentence reads, “running the 2017 Circular Logic Marathon I crossed the start line 26 times before it finally turned into the finish line even though the first time I crossed it was when I started…”

A circular logic sentence on this year’s medal reads, “it was a perfect day to run one mile loops in the 2017 Circular Logic Marathon and keep on running because…”

The round medal encompasses a pi symbol, which represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The ribbon is configured as a Möbius strip, a mathematical concept that represents a continuous curve.

Zero-waste hydration system

The race’s circular nature also allows for a zero-waste hydration system that contributed to the race being certified as a “Green Race” by the Chicago Area Runners Association. Runners bring their own personal water bottles, which are marked with their bib numbers and placed in numerical order on a table. As the runners come around the loop, water-station volunteers hand them their personal water bottles. This allows for zero waste, unlike a typical marathon, where paper cups are strewn all along the marathon route.

In addition to being a certified “Green Race,” Circular Logic Marathon is also a Boston Marathon qualifying race. Marathoners have qualified for the Boston Marathon in each of the last four Circular Logic Marathons, and nine qualified in 2017.

This year, 121 runners completed the full marathon (out of 139 who started), and all 41 relay teams that started the race completed it.

Cook Biotech’s strong running culture

At Cook Biotech, Joe serves as the unofficial patriarch of a strong subculture of runners who have encouraged each other to run their first marathons, half marathons, and 5k races. Often, they run together. The 2017 Circular Logic Marathon was no exception, with 13 Cook Biotech runners making up four of the race’s relay teams and five others serving in various volunteer roles.

Cook Biotech runners who participated in the 2017 Circular Logic Marathon but did not officially run the marathon were Joe Ely, Jessica Sharp, Mike Taylor, Edith Tseng, and Nick Wang. The four Cook Biotech relay teams that ran in the marathon are listed below, along with the runners’ names, number of miles run, and race times in hours and minutes.

Disqualified: Andrew Lund – 8 miles, Cassie Sopko – 6 miles, Steven Cohen – 4 miles, non-Cook Biotech teammates – 8.2 miles. Time: 3:04 (second place in the relay division). (Note: “Disqualified” is the name of the team, not their status in the race!)

Quads of Thunder:  Michelle Chutka – 10 miles, Brooke Magiera – 8.2 miles, Chris Nelson – 6 miles, Sarah Nelson (non-Cook Biotech teammate) – 5 miles. (Three of the four runners on the Quads of Thunder team ran one extra mile in order to run the final lap together as a team with Chris and Sarah Nelson’s daughter, Lydia, carrying the baton.) Time: 4:07.

Undertrained and Overconfident:  Tyler Novak – 13.1 miles, Hilary Schmidt – 13.1 miles. Time: 4:23

CBI Roadrunners: Tom Welborn – 7.2 miles, Rebecca Feick – 7 miles, Daniela Changkuon – 3 miles, Mandy Ovalle – 5 miles, Brandon Ahnert – 4 miles. Time: 4:59.