Themed runs — color runs, zombie runs, donut runs, jingle bell runs, Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder, to name a few — have become quite popular over the years. Now Veishea is test running a cherry pie run to raise money for the Veishea scholarship since a color run had already been done for Homecoming.

“The cherry pie has been something that’s always kind of been associated with Veishea,” said Amber Thomas, co-chairwoman for the Veishea tournament committee. “They sell them every year, it always goes really well and we wanted to do a theme run just to kind of get everyone excited about it so it’s not just a competitive run.”

The cherry pie run is a 5K run modeled after a donut run. However, instead of running half way, eating 12 cherry pies and then running the rest of the race like a donut run, there are three stations with the different components of a cherry pie — graham crackers, cherry pie filling and whipped cream.

“We wanted to do the actual cherry pie, but it was going to be too costly,” Thomas said.

The first station, located near Forker Hall and Food Science, will have graham crackers. The second station will have cherry pie filling at the corner of Osborn Drive and Morrill Road. The last station will be in front of Science II on Pammel Drive and will have whipped cream.

Participants do not have to stop at the different stations if they don’t want to. Thomas said they’re not going to make people stop because they understand that some people are doing the run competitively to train for future marathons and are trying to get their best time. However, it’s still fun for those that are there with their friends to stop at each station.

The time for the participants that stop will be adjusted accordingly. The final time taken off for each station has not been finalized yet, but as of right now one minute will be taken off for the graham crackers and thirty seconds each will be taken off for the cherry pie filling and whipped cream. The committee wants to make sure it’s worth the runners’ time to stop and eat.

Thomas said she will sit down with her co-chairwoman, Kelsey Schultz, and other committee members and decide if each runner needs to eat a certain amount at each station.

“We actually had a graham cracker eating contest to see how long it would take,” Thomas said. “It takes a lot longer that you’d think.”

Although there have been 5K races done for Veishea in previous years, the route this year has changed. Most of this year’s race route follows the same route as the parade but loops around instead of ending near Food Science.

Looking at the map, the route looks like a cherry. Although the committee didn’t plan this when they chose the route, it fits in well with the theme of the race.

“It actually looks like a cherry and I just think that’s hilarious,” Thomas said. “We didn’t plan it like that, but it worked out, which is just neat.”

The race will begin at Molecular Biology at 8 a.m. and go east on Pammel Drive. From there it will go south on Stange Road between Lagomarcino and Kildee Halls. The route then turns west down Osborn Drive and south on Morrill Road. Runners will go past the Memorial Union to Food Science then north on Wallace Road and west again on Osborn Drive and repeat the loop. After the second lap, runners will go north on Stange Road to Pammel Drive and end at Molecular Biology.

Veishea is supplying the food for each station, but the tournaments committee is looking into having one of the grocery stores donate at least a portion of it. The committee is waiting until they get more of an idea of how many people will be participating. This way they aren’t buying a random amount of food.

Thomas said they have already surpassed the number of participants they had last year. She is hoping they get over one hundred runners, which shouldn’t be hard since they had 83 people signed up as of March 28.

In order to have received a T-shirt, people needed to register by March 31. However, people can still register right up until the start of the race. On the day of the race, registration tables will be open at 7:30 a.m. The cost of registration is $20 and the money raised will be put in a fund for next year’s scholarship recipients.

“We’re obviously going to learn a lot this first year on how to set up a themed cherry pie run. I hope the weather cooperates for us, too,” Thomas said.

There are a number of criteria for students applying for the Veishea scholarships. These criteria include both community involvement and academics.

Community involvement includes leadership skills, community service, giving back to the community and projects done. Academics includes GPA, recommendation from teachers and administrators, extracurricular activities, how involved the student is and recognition for different things.

Sarah Azam, co-chairwoman for the Veishea campus and community involvement committee, said there are plenty of things scheduled for this year’s scholarship recipients to do on Saturday.

These activities include the dignitaries’ breakfast, parade, VIP lunch, Farm House museum visit, Veishea Village, cherry pies on central campus and VIP tour of the Campanile. They also have the option to partake in other Veishea activities that evening.

The 2014 Veishea scholars are Emily Samuelson, Deborah Heth, Kristen Lowe, Brooke Almasi and Michael Tupper.

“We’re very optimistic about it and we’re just really excited that we’re experiencing success our first year with this,” Thomas said.