Kids Run The OC 2013

Every year my son’s school participates in “Kids Run The OC”. Kids Run The OC is a 10-12 week program that promotes an active and healthy lifestyle to kids to help prevent the onset of child obesity. During the 10-12 weeks, the kids have practice before, during or after school, where they accumulate a total of 25.2 miles of exercise through FUN, play activities!

This was the first time that my son participated because in the years before that he had sports commitments. They had practices after school two days a week which was perfect for him, because he always has a ton of energy after school.

My son was pretty much wiped from being at school all day and then having run club. In my book, that is a total win. Because seriously, the kid has so much energy. And I always know that he is working hard when he’s tired.

My son also loves Nuun just as much as me. He chugged a full bottle at the end of practice each day.

At the beginning of May, it came time to race! The kids would be grouped by age, and they would complete a mile. My son had trained for this for several weeks. It wasn’t his first race so he knew what to expect.

I love all of the bright colors at the starting line. It looks nice and quiet, doesn’t it? But if you only knew how much chatter was going on. To the left of the starting line were hundreds of kids, waiting, and ready to run!

Well the kid ran as fast as he could, in the chaos. Seriously, he told me that it was very crowded and he was afraid of getting trampled on. He got trampled at a race once, and I think that he is a bit paranoid about that now.

Here is a close-up photo of his medal for running the race. I think that they did a fantastic job with the kid’s race medals.

And the best part? A few weeks after the race, they had an awards assembly before school one day. My son was given a marathon medal for participating in “Kids Run The OC”. As part of the program, you train for 25.2 miles, and then run the race which is an additional mile. Well 26.2 miles in total is a full marathon! So basically my son has a marathon medal and I still don’t have one! He was pretty stoked to get another medal to add to his rack.

I think that this is a fantastic program for kids, and my son will be participating again this year! So if you have kids in Orange County, you should check out the race, and see if your kid’s school is participating in the training program!