Now they are taking on the REAL thing
Stephanie Keelon still remembers the feeling. She was in fifth grade at Cecil Intermediate School, running through Downtown Pittsburgh with her teacher by her side. Crowds cheered Kids Marathon runners on, and she finished her first one-mile racein less than eight minutes.
“I thought it was awesome,” she said. “The Kids Marathon started my love for running.”
Next Sunday, Keelon, 22, will run her first marathon in Pittsburgh — becoming one of numerous Kids Marathon participants to “graduate” to the adult races.
The Chick-fil-A Pittsburgh Kids Marathon is the largest kids’ race in the country. This year, 8,500 kids will run — with a few thousand more parents and other family members joining them.
In its 16 years in existence, it has inspired many to start — and continue — running.
Keelon had grown up playing soccer, but decided to try cross country in seventh grade in part because of her experience in the Kids Marathon. By the time she reached Canon-McMillan High School, she had quit soccer entirely to focus on cross country and track. She ended up qualifying for WPIALs and states,running a 5:22 mile in high school.
She then ran track and cross country at Slippery Rock University. When she couldn’t be on the track team her senior year because she is home student teaching, she decided to train for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon instead.
“I’m living at home this semester but I knew I wanted to keep running,” she said. “I thought about doing the half marathon but honestly, that’s like my usual long run — I could go out and do that tomorrow. So I thought, ‘Why don’t I sign up for the marathon?’ ”
At the University of Pittsburgh, Alex Zang had a similar thought. Zang is a sophomore mechanical engineering major at Pitt who did not play any sports in high school. But he remembered running theKids Marathon back in the third grade at McClellan Elementary School in the WestJefferson Hills School District.
The school’s physical education teacher at the time, Marie Bartoletti, ran as a pacer in hundreds of marathons and got her students excited about running in the Kids Marathon. “She inspired all of us to do it,” said
Zang. “It was the standard — everyone did it.”
Despite not playing other sports, Zang enjoyed the Kids Marathon and continued running in it throughout elementary school. In middle school, he ran cross country and track, but didn’t join the high school team.
With extra time on his hands this semester at school, he and a friend decided to sign up in January. “We paid our $150 and got locked in — there was no turning back,” laughed Zang.
He credits the Kids Marathon for the fact that he’s out running on Pittsburgh’s riverfront trails today.
“It was always fun and I was naturally OK at it,” he said. “It’s probably the basis of my small athletic background.”
Maggie Mollenauer, 18, of West View, can’t remember if she ran the Kids Marathon, but she knows she started running in the Junior Great Race at just 5 years old. “Getting a medal at that age just felt incredible — and it still does,” she said.
Mollenauer grew up running in the Turkey Trot with her family Thanksgiving, and after doing soccer and track in middle school, decided to quit soccer after her freshman year at North Hills High School to focus on running. Her younger sister, Sarah, participated in the Kids of Steel program, and two years ago, Mollenauer started volunteering as a Kids of Steel coach for the North Hills School District.
Last year, as a high school junior, she decided to try running Pittsburgh’s half marathon. “It was a big step out of my comfort zone, doing it alone,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone, didn’t know the route, but it was a lot of fun. I felt like I was smiling the whole time, which most people can’t say when they are running.”
This year, she is running the half marathon again — this time with a friend. Mollenauer plans to attend Grove City College next year, and may join the track team there.
For Keelon, while she is student teaching at Muse Elementary School, she is also helping out with their Kids of Steel training program for the Kids Marathon. She won’t be able to actually attend the race with her students on Saturday, because it’s the day of her college graduation. But she’s told themwhat to expect. on“A bunch of my students will be there running and I told them ‘I did it and it’s so much fun — there will be people everywhere,’ ” she said. “The Kids Marathon has an environment that’s so welcoming and inclusive that anyone can do it — that’s something really special about it. Now my students are like, ‘I want to be a runner someday’ and I said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll be your coach, because I want to coach someday.’ ”