If you’re looking for a fun way to introduce the sport of running to your kids — or strengthen that interest — you might want to check out the inaugural Blue Ridge Classic Fun Run Festival coming up in April at Reynolds High School. The April 18 festival promises fun races and other activities built around running, fitness, nutrition and health.
Read the full release here:
First Annual Blue Ridge Classic Fun Run Festival
Parents, mark your calendars! If you have children who like to run, or you have some you wish would start running, the First Annual Blue Ridge Classic Fun Run Festival is for you! It will be held Saturday evening, April 18, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Reynolds High School after the conclusion of the well-known high school Blue Ridge Classic Track and Field Meet, and will be a fun-filled evening of races and activities aimed at promoting running, fitness, proper nutrition and good health for children.
The entry fee is $5 per runner online at funrunfestival.eventbrite.org or at the festival beginning at 5 p.m. Major support for the festival is provided by TS Orthodontics.
Organized by the coaches and coordinators who put on the track meet (one of the largest in the South), and supported by major area youth and running organizations, the Fun Run Festival will feature five safe and exciting races:
• Paramount KIA 600M Hamster Run for boys and girls in K-first grade (parents can run with the kids)
• YMCA of WNC Raccoon Run 1K for boys and girls in second and third grades (parents also can run)’
• Girls on the Run Red Fox 2K for fourth-through sixth-grade grade girls,
• Asheville Lightning Coyote 2K for fourth-through sixth-grade boys
• WNC Nature Center Black Bear 3K for boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades.
The emphasis is on having fun and learning to run.
Each runner will receive a participation ribbon and a runner’s prize bag containing healthy snacks, a festival wristband and coupons and giveaways from the festival’s many sponsors.Super prizes will be randomly placed in the bags. These super prizes include WNC Nature Center and Biltmore Estate passes, movie passes, restaurant gift cards, massage and spa sessions and coupons for free running shoes at Asheville shoe stores.
There will also be traditional podium awards for the top three finishers for each grade (both boys and girls).
In addition to the races, there will also be free “learn how to” instruction sessions held on the tennis courts and hosted by high school champion athletes. These will be short instructional sessions to teach young runners how to stretch, do strength exercises correctly (pushups, crunches), running drills and more.
The concession stand will also be open all day and evening at the track meet and festival serving affordable, healthy food, including homemade desserts, fruit and snacks as well as Little Caesars Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
And sure to be a hit with kids and parents alike, as well as make the WLOS TV news will be the Festival Race Mascots. High school athletes, dressed up as hamsters, raccoons, red foxes, coyotes and black bears will be on the track to cheer on the runners, and in some races actually run with the kids to encourage them.
No festival is complete without a VIP, and in attendance during both the track meet and the festival will be the famous KIA Hamster to meet the runners and be available for photo ops.
For more information and to register your child online go to www.funrunfestival.eventbrite.org.
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