Over 400 runners participated in the Annapolis leg of the National Youth 5K Series at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium April 19. The event also included a one mile Fun Run that started immediately after the 5K.
The races and the running clinic that preceded the races were run by local running coaches and youth mentors Jon Brianas, Susan Noble, and Lara Mish.
Before the race Brianas thanked Noble and Mish for their efforts towards organizing the Annapolis race. He also asked the runners to “pause to celebrate the youth in our community but also challenge them to learn to meet challenges that they will encounter in life.”
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Brianas urged the youthful participants to “Overcome! Dream! Succeed!" That’s the motto he has coined for the event.
“The races are metaphors for life,” he told them. “You challenge yourself to pursue a positive goal. You finish what you set out to do, and you learn in between.”
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Coach Jon, as the youth and parents call him, co-founded Turning Point Sports, an Annapolis group that promotes active and healthy living for youth and adults. In 2010 the group sponsored a Fit Family™ Fun Run that was so much fun that the organization wanted to make it bigger and better.
That run has evolved into the National Youth 5K Series which benefits a variety of youth organizations including Girls on the Run, Box of Rain Foundation, and the Team Captain Kids Foundation.
“This year this event will be run in six cities. It’s national, and it started right here in Annapolis,” Brianas said.
