Over 160 runners participated in the sixth annual Centennial Spring Class 5K Fun Run on April 28.
Organized by Centennial Christian School, the athletic event is a fundraiser to help raise money for food programs in local schools across Terrace.
“The weather was fantastic. It was cool, which was nice for the runners, but it was sunny so the trail wasn’t muddy,” says Ella Ringma, assistant principal of the school. “It was a great buzz, lots of fun.”
She says the school initiated the run six years ago because they thought it would be a great event for the public to take part as there weren’t many races happening in Terrace at the time.
Since then, they’ve gathered a lot of support from the community and have been working with Skeena Valley Runners to make their race a success each year.
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“We’ve been trying to do different things to promote healthy living in our community and even within our school,” says Ringma. “The run kind of ended up being the one that worked well and it connects us with more [people] than just our school.”
She adds they had several runners travel from Prince Rupert to participate in the race, which was a first this year.
They also had their fastest record time broken by Connor Block in the 13 to 19 male division at 16:34.
Although there were some serious runners, Ringma says the race was catered to be more family-oriented and they tried to make it fun for everybody. Before the big 5km race, they held a 1km race for the children to encourage them to take on running.
“We had two-year-olds running to 10-years-old [on the field],” Ringma says. “They all got a little cookie medal at the end.”
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As the race was a fundraising event, there were no medals for the 5km runners but there were still other goods to be claimed.
The fastest athletes and raffle winners took home prizes, from kayaks to gift cards, valued at a total of $2,000 and sponsored by local businesses.
“A lot of people left happy, they got some pretty neat things and it was just like a fun atmosphere, Ringma says. “We [also] had lots of fruit and cookies for everybody to eat.”
Centennial Christian School’s next public athletic event will be their first Golf Scramble at the Skeena Valley Golf and Country Club on May 25.
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