Run fosters the spirit of student fitness

Marisa O’Neil

Students at Eastbluff Elementary School are walking to Washington,

D.C., this year, so a little jog around Fashion Island is a

comparative piece of cake.

Nearly three-quarters of the student population at Eastbluff is

expected to take part in Sunday’s 22nd annual Spirit Run at Fashion

Island, said race chair and PTA member Lauren Mulvaney. Though the

race raised more than $100,000 last year -- split between Eastbluff,

Andersen, Harbor View, Newport Coast and Lincoln elementary schools

-- this year students viewed it more as a chance to improve their

fitness and expand on their Walk to Washington program.

Students at the school are walking every day and mapping their

progress on an imaginary walk from California to Washington, D.C.

They do it during the last 10 minutes of each school day with

physical education teachers, funded with proceeds from last year’s

Spirit Run.

“It’s unbelievable,” Mulvaney said. “There’s little, tiny,

first-graders out there with big sixth-graders, just out there

walking.”

In preparation for Sunday’s Spirit Run, 62 students took part in a

runner’s clinic at the school, learning about nutrition, fitness and

training for the race, she said. On Thursday, they ran a quarter-mile

longer than the one-mile race their age group will run on Sunday, she

said.

Andersen Elementary School also had a clinic to prepare their

students for the race, race organizer Dina Mead said.

The Spirit Run has been successful over the past two decades,

because it has so much community support and support from the running

community, she said. Of the 5,000 expected to take part, half will

likely be students and family, while the other half will be regular

runners, she said.

“Everyone loves the Spirit Run,” Mead said. “All the kids get

excited about it. It’s so sweet and so cute.”

Mead’s husband, Jamie Mead, ran the race months after a heart

transplant. This year, he’s been busy traveling for business and

hasn’t yet decided if he’ll take part, she said.

As usual, the run at Fashion Island will include a 10K run and

walk, a 5K and 5K family walk and shorter races for children ranging

from tiny toddlers on up.

It will include medals, awards, prizes, refreshments and

entertainment.

Among those performing is the Green Room, a surf band made up of

fifth- and sixth-grade boys from some of the participating schools.

The band is ready to play some classic rock to the massive crowds on

Sunday, publicist Barbara DeMarco-Barrett said.

“They’re all very excited, but they’re taking it all in stride,”

she said.

Daily Pilot news assistant Lindsay Sandham contributed to this

report.