Big Bang Mile and Science Festival

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Bell Works, Holmdel NJ

Saturday, July 19th, 2025

🚀 About the Big Bang Mile

"Anticipating the preservation of the Holmdel Horn Antenna and the creation of Dr. Robert Wilson Park."

The Shore Athletic Club is proud to host the

🏃 The 5th ANNUAL BIG BANG MILE

Saturday, July 19, 2025,

RAIN or SHINE!
Bell Works in Holmdel, NJ

Possibly the best records-eligible road mile course in the universe!

First 300 to register get a t-shirt!

PLEASE NOTE: This race is open to all types of runners and all age groups! Teams for the USATF-NJ 1 Mile Masters Team Championship competition will be declared using the normal process. That is, team captains will submit their rosters by e-mail to the timing company (CompuScore in this case) and to the USATF-NJ LDR Committee the day before the race. USATF-NJ will send out e-mail early next week announcing the race and providing the details for the roster submission process. The Big Bang Mile registration web site is where non-USATF-NJ teams are declared.

🕒 Tentative Event Schedule

7:00 AM: Bib and t-shirt pick up
8:15 AM: Community Run/Walk and U12 Mile
8:40 AM: John Saarmann Masters Men (ages 60+) Mile
9:00 AM: Hylo Athletics Masters Women (ages 50+) Mile

The schedule of each heat will be slightly adjusted on event day depending on the entries for each race. For each person entered in the Community and Youth Mile, $3 will be donated to our charity partner, Scouting America Monmouth Council. For each team entered in the HS/MS Mile and the Fitness Mile, $10 will be donated to our charity partner, Scouting America Monmouth Council.

🏅 Awards

Open Runners Awards:

1st place: $100 cash + a $200 Bombas gift code + a free VO2MAX test by Atlantic Physical Therapy
2nd place: $100
3rd place: $75
Open awardees need not be members of USATF-NJ.

Masters (age 40+) Runners Awards: Top 3 USATF-NJ masters men and women based on age grading will be awarded a pair of Hylo running shoes. Any non-USATF-NJ man or woman who achieves the top age grading among Masters heat participants will receive $100 cash.

📝 Registration

$30: Early bird discount for all races until March 31.
$35: All races from April 1 to May 31. Price Increase to $40 on June 1!
Registration closes: Friday, July 18, 2025
No registration on race day.

No animals or headphones allowed in any heat for safety. Strollers allowed only in the Community race. First 300 registered runners will receive a custom shirt with the Big Bang Mile event logo.

📖 The Story Behind the Big Bang Mile

The Bell Works building was once a primary location for Bell Laboratories. “Bell Labs” attracted top-notch scientists to conduct basic research that might advance telephony. Two such scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, studied radio signals from space in support of the Telstar project. In 1964, to their surprise, they observed a background noise coming from every direction in the sky. Wherever they pointed their radio telescope, they measured the same frequency and strength of microwave radiation. Puzzled, Penzias and Wilson conferred with colleagues. Princeton University astronomer Robert Dicke revealed they had found evidence for the Big Bang. This is a theory that the universe started with an explosion 13.8 billion years ago. For their important contribution to science, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978.

The radio telescope used by Penzias and Wilson still stands today. It is located on top of Crawford Hill, about 2 miles northwest of the Bell Works facility. A nearby plaque explains its significance. It is worth a visit. In fact, Holmdel Township has purchased the 30 acres that surround the antenna and will convert it into Dr. Robert Wilson Park.

The Shore Athletic Club, New Jersey's oldest running club, dedicates the Big Bang Mile Race to scientists everywhere. We hope that runners draw inspiration from this story to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and perhaps even pursue a STEM career. Aim high!