Talk about running in the family!
Teams of youngsters and their parents competed for supremacy during the Get Up & Go! Family Adventure Race at the Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park on July 24, hosted by the City Parks Foundation and New York Road Runners. And for one winner — a 10-year-old participant whose least favorite activity is exercising — crossing the finish line first was great inspiration to get going on his feet more often, his teammate said.
“It was very nice for someone who usually doesn’t do any exercise. It’s a bit of encouragement. He was very hesitant of doing it but we were sort of like, ‘Come on let’s do it!’ ” said Bensonhurster Maggie Pang.
Pang and son Tyler tore through the course’s 12 activities in less than 21 minutes, including frisbee, climbing over a 5-foot wall, and miniature golf. And the once-sedentary 10-year-old had so much fun competing, he’s now a budding future runner, said Pang.
“He had a lot of fun and to push him to keep going and going — and he was asking, ‘When is the next race?’ I guess it’s nice for him to have fun and everything and he realized we came in first,” she said.
And the second-half of Pang’s family — her husband Calvin and 8-year-old daughter Katelyn — also ran the race and had a blast, even though they weren’t as speedy, she said.
“My husband and my daughter were on one team, they didn’t come in first,” said Pang. “It’s fine, they had fun — the most important thing. They actually went and had a lot of fun.”
