Amid a light mist, the Churchill Gang - A.J., Hailey and Logan - encouraged one another as they circled SportsBackers Stadium last night during a mile run, a prelude to today’s 31st annual SunTrust Marathon.

The Churchills, all students at Crenshaw Elementary in Chester, were among the more than 500 runners who competed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Kids Run.

Logan, 10, led the Churchills across the finish line. Then, 6-year-old A.J. and 8-year-old Hailey followed, along with a wave of runners ranging in age from 5 to 12.

“It was hard for us, but because we run laps at school, it helped us to finish,” Logan said.

While the Churchills pulled each other through, Austin Correia pulled away from a crowded pack, which included some mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts and pets who tagged along on a wet course.

Correia, a 12-year-old Matoaca Middle School student, covered the mile with a 5:43 clocking. It was the best time of all three age groups (5-7, 8-9 and 10-12), and he finished nearly 60 meters ahead of the competition.

“For the last couple of weeks I’ve been practicing for one mile,” Correia said. “I went out hard and kept my pace. Then, I finished hard over the last 100 meters.”

Correia, who will compete in today’s nTelos 8K run, said he worked hard in preparation for this event. He and his friends measured the blocks in his neighborhood at River Bend, then trained every day to find the right strategy.

Yet it was the countless soccer matches that helped Correia with the endurance needed to stretch out in the mile run. “I tripped over something, and told myself if I didn’t pick it up, I wasn’t going to win,” he said. “Other than that, everything went as I planned.”

Elijah Alford, 7, didn’t have a strategy. He just attacked the course.

“It was a little slippery, but I just ran fast,” said Elijah, quarterback of the Chalkley Steelers in Chesterfield County. “I only stopped two times.”

Corey Joyner, 10, of Chalkley Elementary, ran “real fast.” That was his strategy.

Admittedly, he didn’t do anything special in training for the race. But his mother, Letricia Poole, said, “He just did a lot of running around the house and chasing the puppy.”

Poole didn’t win his division, but like all the competitors, he earned a medal.

Contact Ralph N. Paulk at (804) 649-6851 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

- Republished from inRich.com

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