While students slept, they ran. While students skipped class, they ran. While students were taking their second nap of the day, they were still running.

They are the volunteer runners of the 1998 Veishea Voyage Marathon, and they ran a long distance to carry the torch into the opening ceremonies of the Veishea celebration on Friday.

“We had a real good turnout this year. Each group had about 13 to 14 runners,” said Mike Lampe, co-chairman of this year’s Veishea Voyage Marathon.

There were five groups that ran more than 447 miles, with day one starting at Onyx Cavern near the Ozarks in Missouri.

“We wanted to start the marathon this year where the runners could have some nice scenery,” Lampe said.

Volunteers ran the marathon with continuous three-mile intervals. Each group consisted of two vans, 13 to 14 runners and lots of water.

With the hatch open and music blaring, one van drove in front of the runners to keep them motivated. The other van, filled with resting runners, drove behind the pack to protect the runners from traffic.

“I had the cruise control set at five miles-per-hour,” said Luke Berglund, senior in animal science and pre-veterinary medicine.

Group one had a confrontation with the law. “The police pulled us over. They got some calls from in town about some kids running in the street,” said Katie Knott, sophomore in electrical engineering.

Group one ran 87 miles to Stover, Mo., where group two picked up the torch and an extra runner.

“We had a dog follow us for seven miles, and then it got hit by a car,” said Renee Sievers, sophomore in marketing. “We thought it was dead, and then it came out from under the car and kept going.”

After a day filled with roadkill and running dogs, group two linked up with group three at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, and passed the torch at home plate before a Royals game.

After the two groups watched the game, it was group three’s turn to run. Following a quick stop at Denny’s Restaurant, group three started running at 11 p.m.

One runner found out the hard way what not to eat before going into a long run.

“Don’t eat a Denny’s Moon-over-My-Hammy before you go and run,” said Angie Cornelius, freshman in management information systems.

After a night of tornado watches and cattle stampedes, group three passed the torch to group four on Wednesday in Maysville, Mo., at about 10 a.m.

“The name of the game is about a nice, slow pace,” said Angie Kell, sophomore in dietetics, after she ran 32 miles.

David Swanson, freshman in computer engineering legged out 43 miles on only high school cross-country experience. “I was sore,” Swanson said.

Group four took the torch from Maysville, 90 miles into Iowa and passed the torch to group five at Afton.

Group five successfully finished out the marathon by running 95 miles from Afton into Ames.

“It was pretty cold the last day, but overall, everything turned out real well,” Lampe said.

He and co-chairman Brian Lindeman coordinated the Veishea Voyage Marathon, which included making this year’s route and driving each group to and from each destination all hours of the night, all week long.

The marathon was a success, and for the final run all the members of the five groups ran the torch into Veishea’s opening ceremonies Friday afternoon.