The Color Run.
"Why walk when you can run?" seems to be the motto for most kids with their abundance of energy, but running is a skill and an interest that many of us let wane as we grow older. However, the summer crop of family-friendly, non-intimidating short-run events are getting parents and their children out running together, enjoying bonding time as well as the benefits of fitness and the satisfaction of achievement. These fun runs really do sound like fun.
If you're looking for a regular fun run this summer, the State Beach Series on Takapuna Beach gets under way this Tuesday evening. Adults do a 5km run (four lengths of the beach), while the kids' event for under-12s is just two laps, or 2.5km. There are also sea swim and stand-up paddleboard races on 18 Tuesdays over summer.
Event director Scott Rice says the event, now in its 10th year, attracts a lot of families, who make a night of it.
"We get the kids doing their event and the parents doing the longer distances, then everyone gets together for a picnic dinner or fish and chips on the reserve," he says. "Kids get to catch up with their mates, and the mums and dads catch up with the other mums and dads, and everyone can just play around on the sand and have fun."
As well as the social aspect, there is also the attraction of running on sand rather than the road, with many children running barefoot.
The event attracts more than 500 participants each week, with up to 200 junior runners. This year a primary schools team event has been added, where kids can earn points for their school.
Up to 1000 people are expected put on their running shoes on each of three summer Sundays early next year, at the Westfield Albany Lakes Series. The event offers a 5km or 10km run or walk, and a special 2km "kids' dash", timed to start after the adult events so families can cheer each other on in their individual events.
"The number of kids as a proportion of total entries is around 25 per cent, which is huge," says race director Rob Docherty. "The kids do a two-lap course and run right through the centre of the park halfway through their race where all the parents can support them, which makes a real Tour de France atmosphere and gets the kids excited."
Young runners receive official timing chips and finishers' medals. Docherty says kids as young as 3 have taken part in the dash. With a two-hour finish limit, families can also run or walk the 5km event together.
Docherty says the event's proximity to the Westfield Albany mall means there is plenty of parking - and somewhere to hang out afterwards if you're not too sweaty, with the mall organising family-friendly activities on race days. The course for the "grand finale" of the series goes down the mall's "main street", as well as making a lap of the QBE Stadium's playing field.
For those who might find taking part in a "serious" fun run a bit intimidating, the answer is the Color Run at Albany's QBE Stadium on February 15. Billed as "the happiest 5K on the planet", it's all about participation - and throwing coloured powder at total strangers. The event, which started in San Francisco in 2012, has around two million participants in 52 countries.
"It's about getting people off the couch in a fun way," says national manager Ashlee Munting. "Around 80 per cent of participants are female, and we encourage people to run in groups or teams to make it more fun." No official times are taken, and participants of any age can "run, walk, dance or skip" around the 5km course.
Entrants are encouraged to wear white - "the start tube is quite a spectacle in itself" - and then have brightly coloured cornstarch thrown at them every kilometre, plus a collective "colour throw" at the "finish festival".
Milford mum Libby Brereton participated in last year's Melbourne Color Run with her husband and two preschoolers, then aged 2 and 3, and is going back for more fun at next year's Auckland event.
"It was more a colour walk for us, but I think if you sprint it then you miss out on all the fun," she says. "We stopped at each colour station to make 'colour angels' and of course the kids absolutely loved throwing the colour at each other.
"However, I'm going to wear a wig this year - it takes a while for the colour to come out of blond hair!"
Once you've got the running bug, the Run Auckland series will take you through the rest of summer and into the winter. Former duathlete Dion Jelley, who started the 5km and 10km adults' series nine years ago, says he set up the 2km and 4km Run Kids events because "we had more and more kids wanting to do what Mum and Dad were doing". Now around 100 under-16-year-olds take part in each of the six events, held monthly from March to July at locations around Auckland.
Jelley says the most important thing with getting families involved is for parents to make sure their children actually want to run and compete.
"It's a matter of getting the numbers, too - lots of kids don't want to run with just five or 10 others, but if there are lots of kids there, they are more motivated and have fun. It builds friendships, too.
"Kids are pretty fit generally from running around and doing their own thing, so they don't need to do any specific training. You also don't want to push them too hard - you just want them to be happy and develop their own fitness."
Bayswater doctor and mother Paula Ratliff and her husband David run regularly with their four children. Their then-10-year-old daughter Emily caught the bug through a school programme.
"After watching her cross the finish line and feeling the excitement of a big community event, all the kids wanted to run," Ratliff says. "My 6-year-old son Michael completed his first 5km last month, in 38 minutes. He was most thrilled and excited about the fact he 'ran every step and did not walk once!'"
Ratliff says the family, with kids now aged between 4 and 11, trains together three times a week, including a weekly evening road run with a group from a local running store.
"It takes planning and commitment but focusing on the goal, be it an event or improvng a personal best time, motivates them. Seeing their confidence grow as they achieve a goal and the sheer joy on their face at the finish is exhilarating. Plus there are the relationships you build with your kid when you buddy run with them, running at their pace."
State Beach Series: Takapuna Beach. 2.5km and 5km run, plus swim and paddleboard events. First event Tuesday, November 4, then every Tuesday until December 23; resuming January 20.
Westfield Albany Lakes Series: Albany Lakes Civic Park. Sunday, January 18; February 8, March 1. 5km, 10km run or walk and 2km kids' dash.
Color Run: QBE Stadium, Albany. Sunday, February 15. 5km run, walk, dance or skip. Strollers are welcome and kids under 5 are free.
Run Auckland: Six events around Auckland, from Sunday, March 29-Sunday, July 19. 5km, 10km run or walk; 2km and 4km Run Kids events for under 16 year olds.
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.