Parkside Elementary School’s annual marathon drew 190 students, which is 86 percent of the school’s student population.

All 11 students from the Clark Elementary School also qualified for the marathon and ran with Parkside students, said Cathy McKenzie, a Parkside teacher who founded the marathon.

Over the course of the school year, kindergarten and first-grade students needed to run 12 miles (72 laps) to qualify for the marathon. Second-graders and third-graders had to tally 16.5 miles (100 laps). For fourth-graders and fifth-graders, the benchmark was 25 miles (150 laps).

The following students ran the most miles for their grade level:

• Kindergarten/first-grade: Ryder Stewart (33.3 miles), Ivy Cowley (24.2 miles), Tucker Muecke (23.3 miles)

• Second-grade/third-grade: Colin Walker (54.2 miles), Weston Ayotte (22.7 miles), Evan Whitlock (21.8 miles)

• Fourth-grade/fifth-grade: Simon Shoopman (77.7 miles), Jhett Schwahn (69.5 miles), Stuart Shoopman (68.3 miles)

Six classes had 100 percent participation, where every student in the class qualified, McKenzie said.

“This is noteworthy because the kids really pulled together to help their classmates qualify,” she said. “Students ran with classmates even after they were qualified just to help the whole class in their quest to go to the finale.”

Those classes were both kindergartens, both second grades and both fourth grades, she said. The six classes received trophies for their accomplishment.

Students ran their final laps together on May 6.

“We usually have them run at least a mile at the track as the finale,” McKenzie said. “But the wind and smoke were so bad on our marathon day that we just had the younger kids run half-mile or whatever they felt they could do.”

Older students were still encouraged to run the full mile at the track, but she said teachers didn’t really push it because of the conditions and smoke.

“We always worry about wind, rain and snow ... but apparently now we must also consider the smoke factor,” McKenzie said.

She thanked the marathon’s sponsors for supporting the annual event, and said the main sponsor is the Parkside Parent Group.

Parkside started the annual marathon, and now all of Powell’s elementary schools participate.

“It has now spread district-wide, and we are just thrilled to see so many of our students challenging themselves to meet a goal such as this one,” McKenzie said.

— Tessa Schweigert