Photo Courtesy of Nancy Babcock
BETHEL — The Bethel Outing Club is having its 1st Annual Run and Ride on Saturday July 31. For children, the race will be a 0.4 mile loop, for adults it will be 3.10 miles. Children and adults are asked to run the loop first, and the second time, bike it. The events will begin at 8 a.m. at Gould Academy’s Pine Hill Stadium. Free for children.
The objective of The Bethel Outing Club is to get kids involved with people-powered sports. Volunteer Nancy Babcock says she hopes the children can take these sports and turn them into lifetime skills. She wants kids to associate the sports with feeling good and always turn to them for that same feeling again and again.
For example, there is the Wednesday night series where a group of kids go mountain bike riding through the trails, starting off in Crescent Park, into another trail, and ending in the Gould trails. The kids play a game where they see who can catch air over a rock. Every kid tries, it’s nothing huge, and no one gets hurt, but everyone enjoys it all the same. That’s the feel good feeling Babcock is talking about associated with people powered sports. She says maybe one day it could even act as a stress reliever.
Activities are almost always free for children.
“[We’re] encouraging them to get out and be active,” says Babcock.
Babcock has extra bikes for those children who need it for the Annual Run and Ride race. Reach out to her if your child needs one for the race. Sign up and reach out here: runreg.com/bocrunride
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