EVERGREEN — Emma Johnson had a choice this past Sunday. Birthday party or trail run?
“I’m a mountain goat,” the 2-year-old told her mother, Courtney.
So Emma was one of the youngest of about 160 kids running through the fog along the rocky trails of the Alderfer/Three Sisters Park outside Evergreen early Sunday. The race was the fourth Mountain Goat Kids event of the season, a trail running series that draws as many as 300 galloping kids for clock-free contests designed to spark enthusiam for the outdoors.
“No winners. No losers. No timing clock. Just fun. Just to encourage families and kids to get out on the trails and grow an appreciation for where we live,” said Heath Kirschner, an accomplished endurance runner and dad who conjured up the Mountain Goat Kids idea with four other running dads in 2013.
From that on-the-trail brainstorming chat two years ago, the Mountain Goat Kids series has expanded. The four races on the Front Range this summer drew several hundred kids and even more parents to the trails around Jefferson County’s White Ranch, Bear Creek Lake Park and Lookout Mountain. The Town of Frisco hosted four Mountain Goat Kids races over the summer.
The younger set — Mini Goats ages four and younger — race a half mile to a mile. Older kids race two miles or even a 5k. On Sunday at Three Sisters, parents trotted hand-in-hand with toddlers while preteens sprinted through the trees and meadows.
“You have to go uphill and watch your feet so you don’t trip over rocks,” said Emma Baxter, a cross-country-running sixth grader at Skinner Middle School who was among the top two girl finishers. “It was hard. I mostly run on cement.”
Every finisher got a medal. After-race snacks were wildly popular. Some flush-faced parents finished well behind their kids. Others knew better than to race against the youngsters. A group of boys who sprinted to an early lead talked about stopping to admire a mule deer ambling near the trail.
More than a few kids boasted bumps and scrapes at the finish line. Six-year-old Schuyler Bigelow sprinted across the finish line with blood trickling down his shin. He was proud to show it to mom and dad.
“Such a good learning experience. He’s learning perseverance,” said his trail running dad Andrew Bigelow, who has brought Schuyler and his twin siblings to every Mountain Goat Kids race this summer. “It’s just super cool to do this and impart the same adventure to the kids. It’s a really good esteem builder.”
The Mountain Goat founders — podium-climbing dads Kirschner, Paul Landry, Joe Berg, Pat Sullivan and Tom Amble — are planning to branch out to Fort Collins, Boulder, Colorado Springs and even other states. Born from a desire to share their trail running thrills with their kids, the response to their races “has far exceeded anything we ever imagined,” Kirschner said.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or @jasonblevins
