Ahead of the third annual Queenstown International Marathon, being held on November 19, organisers have announced a marathon challenge for children aged between 5 and 12.
Over an eight to 10-week period the children will run a total of 40km - completing four or five kilometres a week - running the final 2.2km as part of the official marathon in front of friends and family, crossing the finish line on the Queenstown Recreation Ground.
Race director Nicole Fairweather said training programmes, including a checklist for children to monitor their progress, will be emailed to all children and be available on the marathon website.
The 10-week programme, from September 12, challenges children to run 4km a week, while the eight-week programme, starting on September 26, requires children to run 5km a week.
''We want to encourage kids to grab their friends, siblings, parents or dog and get running.
''Completing a marathon is a great achievement, whether you do it in a day or over a period of time, giving a tremendous feeling of accomplishment and confidence by succeeding ...''
A new course start line in the Queenstown Gardens for the Kids Run has been introduced for this year's event. The course travels through the gardens and joins the main marathon course lakeside, taking children through town to the finish line.
Ms Fairweather said the children's event was not restricted to those who had participated in the marathon programme. Entry was open to all children who wanted to run the 2.2km on race day.
Meanwhile, entries for the marathon, half marathon and 10km events were ''going great guns'', she said.
''[It's] just under the three-month mark to go, so everyone's entering ... it's going to be another big year.''
