It took five and a half minutes for each of the nearly 4,000 participants in the U.S. Steel Family Run mini marathon to cross the starting line. A mass of runners, small, large, young and those born earlier, set out on a 4.2 km long route through the streets of the city on Saturday, October 4, 2025.

Among them were also children from two children's homes, whom we invite to this event every year. From CDR Uralská Košice, 6 children and one educator stood at the start of the mini marathon. The children were very happy, they trained especially near CDR.

Jozefína and Sara ran a mini marathon for the first time, Vanesa Džugová runs regularly: "The most beautiful thing is to run through the streets of the city when people standing around cheer you on. And then when I reach the finish line, it's great to say to myself: I made it!" Daniel Džuga also ran his fifth mini marathon: "I enjoy running, I trained mainly around the lake. I'm not interested in winning, but in participating, I want to enjoy it again."

Children from the Children's Home in Podolínec, especially boys, did not have to prepare much. They have run kilometers in their legs, because they regularly play football, in which they achieve excellent performances and successes. The best time among our children from children's homes was achieved last year  by Adrián Trošan: "This year I will not strive for improvement. We run with eight and none of the educators go with us. We have several smaller children in the group, so I have to keep an eye on them and adapt to their pace." Aďo finally finished in 60th place with a time of 18:18.

The best time among the children, 16:12, was run by the youngsters from Podolínec, Milan Slavkovský and Kristián Oračko, who were in a great 18th and 19th place respectively in the overall standings. "And it still "cut" my lower back and I had a cold," said Milan with a smile. Who knows how it would have turned out if he had been in one hundred percent condition....

With her 5-year-old grandson Riško, the wife of our vice-president, Mária Kiraľvargová, conquered the mini marathon track: "We ran for 32 minutes and Riško did not stop even once!"

Deputy President Mike Piekut, who has run three marathons in Chicago and several dozen half-marathons, also ran a mini marathon. After reaching the finish line, he also managed to congratulate and award the winners of the U. S. Steel Family Run.

The children were very happy about the event. Beautiful weather, encouraging spectators around the track, medals...  They replenished the calories they burned while running at a delicious dinner in a restaurant organized for them  by Slávka Tvrdoňová, administrator of the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation.

Photo: Ján Kisucký