Kids try trail running in Moose On The Loose

Moose on the Loose organizer, Leslie Keener, center, and "super volunteers" Pete Stoughton, left, and Mark Christiansen. Photo: Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah. — The sun had barely come up and race HQ was already set up.  Yesterday’s leg of the Moose on the Loose children’s Park City fun-run trail series was ready and set to go.

Three family-friendly, friendly-competition events represent this summer-staple series. The first was in June at the base of the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) road, this second, July race was held in Round Valley meeting at the Trailside area and the third, August event will be held in Round Valley meeting at Quinn’s Junction.

Believing wholeheartedly that kids can do hard things and have fun doing it is the philosophy that drives Leslie Keener, co-creator and race director, and her, as she refers to them, super volunteers, Pete Stoughton and Mark Christiansen. Those two do everything from helping set up the snack swag to forerunning the course. Stoughton knows of what he speaks as a proven distance mountain running competitor and coach when he says after forerunning, “Any kid who can finish THIS course should be extremely proud of themself.” 

Moose on the Loose Races offers three distance options with suggested age ranges for each distance:

• MINI MOOSE –  0.5 ish mile run course, approx. 3 minutes, suggested age: 3 years to 5 years
• ​JUNIOR MOOSE –  1.5 ish mile run course, approx. 10 minutes, suggested age: 6 years-9 years
• MIGHTY MOOSE –  3.0 ish mile run course, approx. 20 minutes, suggested age: 10 years-13 years

The trail fencing was borrowed from the Park City Rotary Club via series co-creator Canice Harte. Teaming up with Youth Sports Alliance (YSA), this nonprofit, which was started in 2017, is off and running. 20% of proceeds go back to YSA which provides grade-schoolers in Summit and Wasatch counties opportunities in sports and other extracurricular activities.

There were 120 athletes registered in this race. This competition found ten volunteers however, Keener says that she wishes she had twice as many and as young as 13 years old. The two teenage girls who were at race HQ expressed joyful privilege to get to wear a bright yellow vest and go out onto the course as trail markers. Keener says volunteers like these are great role models for the racers.

Moose on the Loose gives scholarships to anyone in the School Free and Reduced Lunch Program, otherwise, there’s a nominal entrance fee. Adults who run alongside their children run for free.

“We simply want to get kids out onto the trails and foster a love of trail running, an appreciation for nature and an enjoyment of moving their bodies where they can cheer for themselves and for others,” said Keener.

She co-created the series to have her own kids and their friends experience all of those things. Most registrants aren’t necessarily runners coming into this, they may be skiers, bikers, baseball players, gymnasts, or the like and get turned on to running through this programming as this tends to be their first experience to an actual race. Keener, herself, grew up in Northern California where she said, “The only running I did was a soccer player.”

The majority of families are from Park City, however, some come from Heber City and the Salt Lake Valley.

Registration for the August event can be found here and June and the summer series’ results can be found here.