It took an incredible more than 5 minutes for almost four thousand mini-marathoners to all run through the start. In the huge orange river, which consisted of small and large runners of the U. S. Steel Family Run, even children from two children's homes, whom we have traditionally invited to this running holiday, were not lost on the 4.2 km long track.
Even before they stood at the start, they took pictures with marathon runners in the premises of the Double Tree by Hilton hotel, and it must be said that they were simply very lucky. Pictured on the left is a group of children with Kenyan Denis Chirchiro, who won the marathon on Sunday, and on the right is Mesfin Nigusu Tolla, who finished second.
The children were preparing for the mini-marathon. From the Center for Children and Families Uralská Košice, a group of runners consisted of 6 children and two educators. "Everyone trained, both children and adults. Older children have already run a mini-marathon in the past, for young children it is a premiere," said director Jana Funderáková.
"I'm going to run for the third time, but I'm really looking forward to it," says Daniel and his friend Jožko, who stood at the start of the mini-marathon for the second time, added: "We trained a lot. We played both physical education and football, and we also did "circles" around the school."
In the end, Sebastián Žiga finished from Uralská with the best time of 0:22:06.
A group of runners from the St. Klement Hofbauer Children's Home from Podolínec consisted of 8 children. "The children have been trained, they trained in the vicinity of Podolínec. It is a pity that the best from last year, Kiko Oračko, is not here, who is currently playing a qualifying match in football for the promotion to the World Championship of Children's Homes, which will be in Poland. They have already won 4 matches and they still have to win the finals," said Štefan Straka, director of the children's home. In the early evening, we learned that the little football players from Podolínec also won the final match and the coach will choose a large group of representatives from their squad, among which Kristián Oračko, who was declared the best scorer of the tournament, will certainly not be missing.
Sára had her premiere at the mini-marathon, on the contrary, Vaneska tried this run several times, who especially liked the atmosphere in the city and the cheering spectators along the course.
With the best time of 0:16:30, Adrián Trošan (in the second picture with his friend Boris Mirga 0:20:02), who placed 16th, finally ran: "It was difficult for me to run, I didn't have good shoes. My feet hurt a lot because of the soles that were too thin."
The lens of our photographer Ján Kisucký captured the chairman of RO OZ KOVO U. S. Steel Košice Juraj Varga and the wife of our vice-president Mária Kiraľvargová in the crowd of mini-marathon runners.
Mike Piekut, Deputy President of U. S. Steel Košice, had his premiere at the Košice Marathon, handing over medals not only to the best marathon runners on Sunday, but also to the winners of Saturday's U. S. Steel Family Run.
