Kids have fun running ‘the OC’

During the last 25 yards of a one-mile run, Liam Bui and Yashpreet Singh sprinted as a large crowd cheered near the finish line at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa Saturday morning.

Bui, 14, turned it on just a bit more than Singh, 12, to win the Open Division of the Kids Run the OC (KROC).

The runners congratulated each other after the race and talked about the fun they had. It was one of many remarkable moments during KROC, which is a highlight during the events for the 11th annual U.S. Bank Orange County Marathon that takes place on Sunday.

KROC featured over 6,000 children from 92 schools participating in different divisions.

“Last year, I got second and I wanted to go for first this year,” said Bui, a 14-year-old who was representing La Purisima Catholic School in Orange. “[Singh is] very fast. He pushed me.”

Singh didn’t appear disappointed to finish second.

“It was great and fun because of the whole crowd and all the energy,” said Singh, a 10-year old from Raymond Temple Elementary in Buena Park.

Bui, Singh and the rest of the children trained for 10-13 weeks to prepare for KROC. They accumulated 25 miles during the training and finished their “marathon” on Saturday. An OC Marathon medal was one of several awards for their work.

The OC Marathon Foundation’s KROC program provided training tips, as well as games for coaches to help the school’s teach the children about running.

The training and nutrition lessons helped the children combat recent studies from the O.C. Department of Education that showed that only 38.7% of local fifth-graders passed the 2013 State Fitness Test.

The lessons from running and training also caused the children to avoid junk food and staying indoors.

The KROC program has worked as a great complement to health and fitness at College Park Elementary. The Costa Mesa school has also enjoyed an uptick in participation numbers throughout the years at KROC. College Park started with 25 runners at the annual kids’ run event and had 125 on Saturday, said Julie Smith, a third-grade teacher at the school where she has been working for 20 years.

Smith is the founder of a running club at the school that started 10 years ago. Many of the College Park students have been running for that club once a week during lunch. Recently, some of them also train on Thursdays for KROC.

“They learned that running can be fun,” Smith said. “That’s our big message since it’s such an accessible sport for kids. They just need a pair of shoes. They can do it throughout life. It’s healthy and fun. And during the race it gives the family something to do to watch the kids run. That’s my favorite thing to see.”

The training has also given the kids confidence and helps them perform better in the classroom, Smith said.

Parent coaches Enrique Moran and Raquel Duran provided great support, as did five teachers whom also coached, Smith said.

Barbara Thomson, a sixth-grade teacher in her second year at the school, was fascinated with the unique success of the KROC program at College Park.

“It’s an amazing experience,” said Thomson, coach. “A lot of them don’t have an opportunity to compete in athletics especially at a younger age. Sometimes it’s for an economic reason. They don’t have the money to fund an outside activity. So this is a chance for them to be involved in something. To see them run the final lap and cross the finish line is awesome. Just crossing that finish line and having people cheer for them it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime type experience for a lot of them. So hopefully it encourages them to keep running. I know all of the coaches are really into athletics and supportive of a healthy lifestyle.”

College Park fourth-graders Nicole Cortes, 9, and Ava Pollock, 9, participated in KROC for the fifth straight year and remained excited about the event.

“It feels awesome,” Pollock said of crossing the finish line amid the cheers from the crowd.

Said Cortes: “It feels like I was in a movie and I got an award.”

Kendall D’Ambrosia, 10, a fourth-grader at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar, was thrilled to participate in KROC for the third straight year. She also enjoyed the training, which began in January, and the lessons she learned.

She said she learned how to keep a solid pace throughout the mile and how to maintain a proper running form.

Pam Coleman, a physical education teacher at Harbor Day, said the students usually ran a half mile or three-quarters of a mile each day.

D’Ambrosia was happy to apply the skills and lessons she learned while training to Saturday’s one-mile event.

“It doesn’t matter how fast you go or how you slow you go,” she said. “All that matters is that you’re having fun.”

Tara D’Ambrosia, Kendall’s mother, said she likes the KROC program because it has helped her daughter eat healthy food.

Gargi Dahiya of Irvine was ecstatic about her son’s eating habits during the KROC training.

“He used to tell us when he got home, ‘No soda, no chips. And I should eat one apple a day,’” Dahiya said of her 10-year-old son Arjun who attends Oak Creek. “I never heard those things from him so I just loved it.”

Michelle Bleeker, who was a coach for Oak Creek, said 30 kids represented the school at KROC. She said nutritional challenges helped kids like Arjun.

“My first question that I would ask them would be, ‘Did you do the nutritional challenge?’” Bleeker said. “‘Did you have vegetables instead of chips?’ If they didn’t do it then they have to run or do pushups. It’s a fun thing.”

Bleeker also told the runners to set goals, which included improving their time in the mile.

The big crowd and all the runners gave 10-year-old Ashley Dahl some pressure on Saturday.

“I was kind of nervous before but when I started running it got more fun,” said Dahl, a fourth-grader at Oak Creek, who finished in 8:17. “I liked everyone cheering for us.”

Amy Dahl, Ashley’s mother, said she likes the KROC program and what it has done for the kids at Oak Creek.

“She learned about having a goal and reaching it, sticking to it,” Amy Dahl said. “She learned about teamwork, going for a personal-best, to be a part of group effort and camaraderie. This is awesome. It’s a great way to get kids involved in running and to show nutrition and health at school. Hopefully they’ll find a love for running and go into track or cross country in high school.”