Participants in this year’s Med Center Health 10K Classic will notice a change of pace with course changes and more chances to win cash prizes.

During a news conference Friday, 10K Classic co-chairman Joe Tinius said the changes are meant to advance the event’s long-running goal of becoming more accessible for all participants. For starters, participants will no longer begin near Western Kentucky University’s Jones Jaggers Hall and instead start at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“This is going to allow us to consolidate everything at the stadium,” Tinius said, adding it will allow for better restroom access and management for late registration. “The start will take place pretty much right behind the football scoreboard and then proceed up University (Boulevard) past the old start line.”

Instead of continuing to the U.S. 31-W By-Pass like normal, participants will turn left onto Normal Drive and then turn right onto Regents Avenue, making their way toward Chestnut Street.

“Our friends from the Bowling Green Police Department are happy that we’re not going to be fooling with the roundabout anymore and getting away from that traffic issue,” Tinius said.

After arriving on Chestnut Street, Tinius said the race will continue as it has previously existed for many years. Participants will go all the way down Chestnut Street and loop around Park Street and East Third Avenue to come up State Street. The course then makes a right onto East 13th Avenue to continue back down College Street.

To make the new finish line work, Tinius said runners will circle around Fountain Square Park as they continue down College Street. They’ll turn onto East Eighth Avenue to pass the Bowling Green Ballpark, and then run down Kentucky Street and Center Street before taking a left off University Boulevard headed for WKU’s Avenue of Champions.

“We will enter the football stadium right there at the gate where the finish line used to be,” Tinius said, adding participants will finish the race in the middle of the football field. “We’ll have the big screen so that folks can see themselves coming into the stadium and coming to the finish line.”

The finish line will no longer go down around the Nick Denes baseball field and come in through a tunnel.

“We’ve heard from some of the runners that that last kilometer was pretty tough with circling down and coming back up around the baseball field and coming through the tunnel,” he said. “We know it was especially challenging for our wheelchair participants to come through the tunnel and come up that very steep incline through the tunnel and then be on the artificial turf for 300 yards.”

Overall, Tinius described the event as more “runner-friendly” and more efficiently organized.

Tommy Loving, the event’s second co-chairman, said street closings will be more forgiving than previous years, but said drivers should expect street closings between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m.

“Totally, the downtown area will be released generally before 9:30 a.m.,” he said.

This year’s 10K Classic starts at 8 a.m. on Oct. 21 with the wheelchair race starting at 7:55 a.m. Other events include a 5K Run/Walk at 7:30 a.m., children’s races at 9:30 and 9:45 a.m. and an awards ceremony at 10 a.m.

As for the cash prizes, Loving said more people will have chances to win. As much as $5,000 will go toward the grand prize winner. There will be four $1,000 awards and two $500 early bird drawings for registering by Sept. 21.

More information about the race is available at www.themedicalcenter10kclassic.com.