They laced up their running shoes and pinned their bibs to their T-shirts, and by 6 p.m. Friday, hundreds of children were sprinting toward the finish line during the seventh annual Kids Fun Run in Mill Race Park.
The more than 1,050 youngsters who ran in the Kids’ Fun Run — ranging in age from toddlers to sixth graders — kicked off an entire weekend of race- and health-related activities that annually draws thousands of registered participants plus hundreds of spectators.
Donning shirts created by Brittany Mercado, a sixth-grade student at L.C. Schmitt Elementary School, runners spanning from age 2 to 12 lined up at the start line for their respective races. Children were divided into six different categories during the Fun Run: tots with parents, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten with parents, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten without parents, first and second grades, third and fourth grades, and fifth and sixth grades.
Drew Wyant runs with his 5-year-old son, Will, several times a week — one of Will’s favorite activities, he said.
“You gotta start them early,” Wyant joked.
For more on this story, including more photos, see Saturday’s Republic.
