Kids clicking away the kms for Little Souls Marathon

By Lethbridge Herald on May 24, 2025.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Running club members get splashed with coloured powder during the school's Colour Run Friday morning, marking their 38.2 Km. towards their Little Souls Marathon at Father Leonard Van Tighem School.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

After accumulating dozens of kilometers of running within the last few weeks, over 500 children will be taking part of the Little Souls Kids Marathon next Wednesday. 

Shawn Pinder, co-owner of Runner’s Soul which hosts the marathon, says the event has been taking place since the early 2000s and as of Friday morning, 545 kids have already signed up for Wednesday’s event. 

“Last year we had a max of 500, so we are a bit bigger than last year,” says Pinder. “I like to have the numbers a little bit higher than we can potentially fill up at, because I would like to allow as many kids to participate as possible,” says Pinder. 

But he adds that they set a limit because they like to have enough medals and shirts for all the kids participating. 

There are a total of 600 spots for kids to sign up this year, to run the last two kilometres of their marathon on Wednesday night, after slowly accumulating kilometres in the month prior to the final race. 

“The event has been going on since 2006, I believe, and it originated as part of our Music For the Soul Marathon as we had a kids event during that,” says Pinder. 

He explains that back then, after the “Music For The Soul Marathon” finished, they had a kid’s version of the marathon which is now the Little Souls Kids Marathon. 

“This coming Wednesday the kids will get together and run the last two kilometres of their marathon distance. We encourage kids to run the 42.2 kilometres on the lead up to the event night,” says Pinder. 

He says this way kids are encouraged to stay active over a longer period of time, which is one of the greatest aspects of the event, as it encourages kids to engage in healthy activities and live and active life. 

“We always try to encourage them to continue with activity after as well, so at various times we have had different sports organizations come out and hand out information for the kids during the event after they finish running,” says Pinder. 

On Friday, running club members of Father Leonard Van Tighem School took part of their colour run, to get splashed with coloured powder and celebrate reaching the accumulated total of 38.2 kilometres of their 42.2 kilometres required to take part of the Little Souls Kids Marathon.