LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Kids are joining in on the weekend full of marathons. Over a thousand Arkansas children trained for their own marathon that took place Saturday morning.
The "Little Rockers Kids Marathon" started in 2004 as a way to combat child obesity rates.
This marathon is a mile long and encourages kids to get out and have fun.
“It’s nice I really like it,” 1st grader Jonah Guin said.
The marathon is for children in 1st through 6th grades.
The little runners complete 25.2 miles of a normal marathon on their own while at home or at school, then meet to complete the final mile together.
“We practiced for 25 miles at our school and then we did our last mile here,” Guin said.
"You pre-run before you go in the race," 4th grader Lily Baxter said.
With the help of cheers from the sidelines, the children were able to accomplish a big goal.
"My favorite part was finishing the race, it felt a lot better than running,” Guin said.
Many parents, teachers, and other supporters ran alongside them.
"I just think it's important to help kids want to be healthy and exercise and if kids start at an early age wanting to exercise than hopefully, they will turn into healthy adults," teacher Mandy Plyler said.
The race organizers hope the children will go on to compete in the Little Rock Marathon when they're older.
"I'd have to train really hard to do that," Baxter said.
Some children do go on to run in the marathon.
“We’ve had participants that have ran our kids’ marathon and 17 years later are running our marathon. So we want them to be young athletes training into adult athletes,” Race Director Gina Pharis said.
The program encourages children to get active in hopes of lowering child obesity rates.
This year, more than a thousand children participated in the marathon. Some of them even ran in the 5K earlier in the morning.