THE ORIGINAL COURSE was a one-way journey from Monument Circle to the IMS. Runners wound north and west, then finished with the lap at the track. But this created huge logistical issues, with thousands of exhausted runners needing transportation back to their cars in the heart of downtown. Changing to a round-trip format in 1993 solved the problem. Participants started downtown, did the requisite lap at the IMS, and then ran back downtown. The next big change came in 1999 with a new layout with parallel outbound and return streets that were more practical for traffic and crowd control. While minor changes have happened since then, the course today is essentially the same.
