On your mark … get set … stumble!
When the Healthy Kids Running Series returns in September, you had better be prepared for the cuteness.
“In the first race, the kids always go the wrong direction, even though everyone is facing the right direction,” running series community coordinator Andrea Long said.
After serving up five consecutive races in the spring, the running series is back for a fall iteration starting at 4 p.m. Sept. 16 at David Douglas Park in Vancouver. Each race takes place at the same time, with races every Sunday through Oct. 14.
It costs $35 to participate in all five races. Day-of-race registration is available; it costs $10 for individual races.
If You Go
• What: Healthy Kids Running Series, age-appropriate races for children 2 to 14 years old.
• When: 4 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 16 through Oct. 14.
• Where: David Douglas Park, 1016 N. Garrison Road, Vancouver.
• Cost: $35 for the five-race series. Register online, www.healthykidsrunningseries.org
“It went really well. We had fantastic feedback from parents,” Long said of the first series. “It seems like there was definitely a need for running events that are age-appropriate for children. That was a surprise to us. We just weren’t sure how the demographics were going to work out. We had kids in every category, from preschool all the way up to eighth grade.”
Renee Collins, another community coordinator, first discovered the series after family members in Minnesota tipped her off to it. The Healthy Running Series started in Pennsylvania in 2009, and has grown to more than 200 communities.
Its aim is giving kids an educational and fun experience with running, while combating increasing rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. — rated that have tripled since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Parents really appreciated having something their kids could do that could get them out and experience running,” Long said.
Collins and Long were hoping for 75 kids to participate when the series premiered in the spring, and they ended up with 177 kids. Some kids joined middle school running teams after taking part in the series, Collins said. Her sons Markus, 8, and Kyson, 6, took part as well as Long’s son Sam, 9.
Preschoolers participate in 50-yard and 75-yard dashes. Kindergarten through third-grade students compete in quarter-mile and half-mile races. And fourth-graders through middle-schoolers run 1 mile.
Each kid gets a medal with the races, and there are trophies handed out for first-, second- and third-place finishers based on standings at the end of the five-week period. Long and Collins mentioned many Healthy Kids Running Series see slight participation dips in the fall because of school returning and fall sports. Yet, they’re still hopeful the numbers can stay similar to the spring. Their goal is to have more than 200 kids in the series by next spring.
“It’s fun to see them excited,” Collins said, “and able to do something at 2 years old, and being able to understand, ‘This is fun.’ “
