On Sunday, October 17, the grownups will hit the streets of Denver for the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Denver Marathon and Half Marathon, but Saturday morning was all for the kids.
Hundreds of kindergarten through fifth graders came out to Civic Center Park for Kids Rock Denver, a one-mile fun run meant to get the younger set involved in the weekend full of events.
The idea was to encourage kids to run a marathon over the course of their training. Many of them logged 25.2 miles over the last several weeks, hitting the marathon distance of 26.2 miles at the end of Saturday's event.
The race was run on Bannock Street, and shared the same start and finish line as Sunday's marathon and half marathon.
Kids Rock Denver was untimed, but there was some obvious talent in each age division. An eight-year-old boy won for the third graders, logging a sub seven-minute mile. The top kindergarten runner blasted out a half-mile in less than five minutes.
Ronald McDonald was on hand to greet kids and give high fives at the finish line. Each child was awarded a finisher's medal that is very similar to the one some of their parents will earn on Sunday.
"It was so hard," said five-year-old Rush from Evergreen, CO. "But it was so fun and I like my medal."
Comments
Good for the kids, Love to see them involved.
I'm pretty excited for when Nick and Kara can do these races.
Good way to get kids started.
That 8 year old sounds like a real trooper. I wonder if I know him?????
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