Women's Little 500  The Women's Little 500 is a bicycle race held annually at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. The race is modelled after the men's Little 500. The race has been run the Friday before the men's race, since its conception in 1987. It consists of half the distance of the men's race: 100 laps (25.49 miles) around the quarter-mile cinder track (410-meters) at the Bill Armstrong Stadium. Racers usually compete in teams of four, but teams can be as few as two, as long as that was the number of team members with which they qualified for the race. These teams usually have a common bond such as living in the same residence hall or being members of the same sorority, or they simply are an independent group with common interests. Each team is only given two bikes on which to ride and therefore, must compete in a relay-style that is rare in other races. Money raised by the event goes towards a scholarship fund for working IU students, and the race is a major social event on campus during the spring. The Women's race is just one of the several expansions added to the Men's Little 500 in order to create a week of celebration. Other events are the annual Little 50, a 50 lap running relay race and Alumni Races, which are held every 5 years. Other student celebrations during the weekend of the race have helped earn it the title of "The World's Greatest College Weekend," and it is known to be the busiest weekend of the year for the local police force. No longer seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong called the Little 500, which has raised more than $1 million in scholarship money, "the coolest event I ever attended." The inaugural Women’s Little 500 was held in 1988, in response to 4 members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority completing a successful qualifications run in the 1987 men’s event on their 3rd and final attempt. Their efforts were chronicled in an article in the New York Times. In the fall of 1987 two of the Theta riders considered either a second attempt to enter the men’s race in 1988 or starting a women’s Little 500, they chose the latter. These women Leeann (Guzek) Terhune and Martha (Hinkamp) Gillum found a receptive Indiana University Student Foundation (the organization that conducts the race), who along with the Indiana University Office of Women's Affairs agreed to support their effort.