Event gets a running start

Marisa O’Neil

Charlie Roman, 5, stood poised with his right arm cocked in front of

him and his right foot planted carefully behind the imaginary

starting line, ready to run.

He and about two dozen other children waited anxiously for Newport

Harbor High School Principal Michael Vossen to call the start of

Saturday’s Kids’ Klassic race at the Harbor Heritage Run at Newport

Harbor High School. Children age 5 to 7 got their own quarter-mile

race after the main event, a 5K run.

“He was very excited last night and this morning, until it became

a reality,” Charlie’s dad, Burt Roman said of the race. “Then he got

a little nervous.”

But the nerves didn’t show as he crossed the line in about the

middle of the pack and got his medal. Roman, who competed in the 5K,

joined his son after the race and held his hand as he walked through

the finish line chute.

Good friends, Jimmy Brown and Catherine Reynolds, both 4, seemed

to be experiencing a runners high as they giggled and played after

the race. Or, maybe it was a sugar high from the medals --

gold-wrapped chocolate on a red-white-and-blue ribbon.

“I didn’t know I had a chocolate medal until I ripped into it,”

Catherine exclaimed, the chocolate spoils of victory apparent on her

face.

The Kids’ Klassic, including a half-mile race for 8- to

10-year-old children, wrapped up the morning for the Newport Harbor

High School Harbor Heritage Run. The 2K, 5K and Fitness Fair, with

vendors offering free drinks, food and other goodies, rounded out the

fun for the roughly 1,000 people in attendance.

The race serves as the main fundraiser for the high school’s PTA,

said race chair Amy Tennyson. The race, an 18-year tradition, has

typically raised about $30,000 for tutoring programs, instructional

supplies and other academic bonuses at the school.

It also serves as a way to bring students to the school and get

them involved in a major event.

“It’s a community builder,” Vossen said. “There are so many

pockets in the community, and this helps bring them together.

The race also brings together pockets within the school.

About 50 students from the Newport Aquatic Center, who run long

distances for crew practice, donned their team T-shirts and ran.

“It was mandatory for us to race,” 16-year-old Taylor Harris

lamented.

Members of the girls cross-country team broke out the puffy paint

to decorate the bright yellow tank tops they wore for the race. And

members of the girls junior varsity and varsity tennis teams

organized slumber parties the night before and went all-out on wacky

costumes.

The varsity girls, like 16-year-old Melissa Chinn, went for a

“funky psychedelic look.” Melissa wore a kid-size cowboy hat, red

leotard, fishnet tights, blue leggings and a white tutu.

The junior varsity girls also wore intentionally mismatched

leggings, stockings and other accessories, but added sweatbands

around their heads and custom-made T-shirts that read: “Vote for

Pedro,” a reference to the movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” they said.

They ran in the 2K, not the 5K.

“We wanted to save our shirts,” 14-year-old Kristen Kahn said.

“And we only got four hours sleep.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected]