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Little 500 is my favorite event of the year, as it is for a lot of people. Some of my best IDS memories are of taking or editing photos of the men's and women's races, the rush to make the best photo of the eight-person team and telling a full story of the event in an award-winning photo gallery. There's so much pageantry around the event, and it produces many of my favorite photos.

This year, I shot for The Indianapolis Star instead of the IDS, and even though I was shooting on my own, I still think I got a complete picture of the event. Check it out below.

Note The Star put up a gallery of the 20-odd photos I sent them yesterday, but this is a looser/more expansive edit of about 40 photos. Y'know, more bang for your click. Also, the IDS did a great job this year at both the women's and men's races.

Delta Gamma's Kayce Doogs beats Kappa Alpha Theta's Kathleen Chelminiak to the finish line to win the women's Little 500 bicycle race at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington, Friday, Apr. 20, 2012. The win was DG's second in the 25-year history of the women's race. (Alex Farris / For The Star)

The photos here show two days of bull clones, rosin on ropes, a true rodeo clown, brave bullfighters assisting the rider, falling, flying, cowboy hats and dirt. You have been warned.

Chad Besplug holds onto Panhandle Slim clone Another One as the bull leaves the chute during the first section of championship day at Professional Bull Riders' Built Ford Tough Invitational on Apr. 15, 2012, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Fabiano Vieira of Perola, Brazil, won the invite atop Who Dat in the championship round, earning $37,885.

A memory changes each time it is recalled; in the same way, my reason for keeping each thing now is different than the reason I kept it in the first place.

I got these shoes during my sophomore year to replace my previous pair. They weren't special; they were comfortable, and I had good experiences with New Balance previously. I've never been attached to a pair of shoes, as most follow the normal cycle of 1) wear all the time, 2) wear sparingly when they start to fade, 3) use for outside chores. These shoes, however, were different. They're my traveling shoes, the only articles of clothing that made every trip during my 15-month Binge of Travel: St. Pete, Fla., North Carolina, London, Dublin, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla (twice), the Canary Islands, Girona, Athens, Santorini, Milan, Liverpool and Marrakech, Morocco. I traveled in them so much that the soles wore thin and rainwater could seep in. I wore grocery bags around them for a week until I got new shoes. When I see them now, I see how much I improved during my travel and how much I want to do it again.