Finishing with a Smile! Eat. Learn. Play. Kids Fun Run at the Oakland Running Festival

Photos by LiPo Ching

Bubbles, face paint, Stomper from the Oakland A’s, and even a special welcome message from Stephen Curry! The Eat. Learn. Play. Kids Fun Run at the Oakland Running Festival was full of special moments, cheering parents, and accomplished finish line smiles.

On Saturday, March 18, the Eat. Learn. Play. Kids Fun Run presented by Kaiser Permanente, hosted over 500 kids from toddlers to tweens, participated in races ranging from a quarter mile to a mile. In addition to kid-friendly activities throughout Oakland’s Snow Park, kids had a chance to high five Oakland A’s mascot, Stomper, and participate in a fun warm-up session prior to their race.

To reach more Oakland kids, Eat. Learn. Play. covered the cost of entry for over 300 youth from our partner organizations and provided medals, shirts, water bottles & cinch bags for every kids run participant.

Video: OpenLight Films

The 14th annual Oakland Running Festival is a week-long celebration of the Oakland community and the joy of movement. In addition to the Eat. Learn. Play. Kids Fun Run on March 18, 7,000 runners and walkers took over The Town on March 19 to race the Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, and 5K.

Thank you to our partners at Under Armour, Curry Brand, and Kaiser Permanente. And a special thank you to all of the parents and race volunteers for supporting these young runners. We’re looking forward to making running even more accessible to Oakland kids in the years to come through our continued partnership with Oakland Marathon and Run Local Events.