Flint, MI—The Crim Fitness Foundation is hosting its annual race event, the Marti Austin Kids Classic, on Saturday, June 3, 2023.
The Marti Austin Kids Classic, or the “mini-crim“, for children between the ages of 0 to 12 will take place at the Flint Cultural Center and races will begin at 10 a.m.
“It’s just [a] super, super, super great community event … Anything that can get the community and kids together is nothing but positive. So I love that piece of it,” said Kenny Krell, the Crim Fitness Foundation’s new director of races and training.
Parents are welcome to run or walk with their kids. The races include the diaper dash, the toddler trot, the quarter mile, half mile and one mile.
The Marti Austin Kids Classic is just one among various race events by the Crim Fitness Foundation. It has added the new CrossFlint Challenge featuring functional fitness events. The Atwood Stadium Races is coming up in July and the HAP Crim Festival of Races, commonly known as the Crim, will held in August, among other racing events.
Krell’s hoping to boost the participation of the foundation’s race events over time.
“That’s why I was brought in here,” he said.
Getting the younger generation more involved is another part of Krell’s objectives. The vast majority of participants in the foundation’s racing events and training for runners and walks are those in their 40s or above, Krell explained.
For the Marti Austin Kids Classic, he said the race event had seen between 100 to 200 participants in the past. But he’s aiming to bring in at least 1,000 kids in the coming years.
“I just hope as I’m here longer that we can grow it,” Krell said. “There should be a couple thousand people there, a couple thousand kids, so I think once I get a handle on where our marketing efforts are for how we can get more kids there, that’s my big goal.”
Interested families can register kids for the event online.