Wind and rain were not enough to keep the runners off campus.

In all, 45 runners braved the weather on Thursday evening to take part in the Veishea 5K Race that took participants around the ISU campus.

One of the goals of the committee members in charge of the race was to make sure the route was straightforward for runners.

“We don’t want to make it too complicated,” said Katie Hansen, a Veishea committee member in charge of the 5K race. “We tried to get a pretty easy course and set up arrows, made signs and printed off the course.”

The committee, however, couldn’t control at least one aspect of the event. Runners took off in front of Curtiss Hall on Central Campus, and by the time they reached Beardshear Hall at the end of the sidewalk, the rain poured down.

Tanner Johansen, another Veishea committee member in charge of the race, said the weather did not seem to deter many participants from attending the event.

“I think that’s a runner’s attitude,” Johansen said of running in the rain. “They run no matter what.”

With a time of 18:07, sophomore Benjamin Moews crossed the finish line first. Moews said there were several reasons he chose to take part.

“Last year I didn’t do it, and I thought it would be a fun Veishea tournament to do,” Moews said. “I’m going to be running the Drake Relays half-marathon next Saturday, so I thought it’d be a nice warm up for that.”

The first female participant to cross the line was junior Lisa Garrett, who ran the race with a time of 20:53. Garrett was running the event with her friend and said she too was warming up for the Drake Relays half-marathon next weekend.

Aside from running, the event also provided participants an opportunity to see parts of Iowa State they never have.

“I got to see parts of campus I don’t normally get to visit just because of my major,” Garrett said. “So that was really nice.”

And despite the rain, Garrett said she enjoyed the race.

“At first it was kind of hard for me to see because [the rain] was getting in my eyes,” Garrett said. “After that it felt kind of nice — especially when you get really sweaty, it’s a nice cool down.”