These Kids Are Running a Marathon This Weekend. Most Adults Never Will.
These Kids Are Running A Marathon This Weekend.
Most Adults Never Will.
Fewer than 1 in 2,000 Americans has ever crossed a marathon finish line. This Sunday, dozens of middle schoolers will join that club.
There’s a stat that tends to stop people cold when they hear it: fewer than 1 in 2,000 Americans has ever completed a full marathon. Not this year. Ever. In their entire lives.
This Sunday at the Hoag OC Marathon in Costa Mesa, dozens of middle and high school kids from WeROCK — We Run Our Community’s Kids — will cross that finish line. Some of them are in 6th grade.
of Americans have ever completed a full marathon.
This weekend, a group of middle schoolers joins that list.
How WeROCK Got Into Our World
When COVID shut everything down in 2020, Josh — one of BFI’s own — was watching his son climb the walls. School was closed, sports were cancelled, and sixth-grade energy had nowhere to go. So Josh took him outside and they ran.
What started as a way to burn off energy became something else entirely. His son found structure, found pace, found a group of kids showing up every Saturday morning who became lifelong friends. It was WeROCK that gave all of that a shape. We’ve been proud to support them ever since. These hats are the latest chapter.
What WeROCK Actually Does
WeROCK was founded in 2010 by Andrea Kooiman with a simple and audacious idea: teach community teenagers the important life skills of goal setting, self-reliance, discipline, and self-confidence through the design and delivery of instructional programs focused on the proper training for — and completion of — a marathon.
The journey starts with just one mile. Runners attend with their school teams for after-school practices twice a week, and the entire team gathers for long runs on Saturday. They race once a month — a 5K in October, the Surf City Half Marathon in February — building mile by mile toward the OC Marathon in May.
The non-competitive structure is intentional. A 7-hour marathon — 16 minutes per mile — is the floor, not the ceiling. Kids run their own race. There are no cuts, no qualifying times, no fastest-kid trophies.
“The journey to a full marathon starts with just one mile.”
These Aren’t the Usual Sports Kids
This is worth saying plainly. WeROCK kids are not typically the starting quarterback or the tennis MVP. They’re often the quieter kids — the ones who don’t naturally fit the mold of competitive team sports, the ones who have something to prove. Maybe to a coach who didn’t pick them. Maybe to themselves. Maybe to nobody but the road.
And then they run 26.2 miles. And the math changes permanently.
Think about what it does to a 12-year-old’s internal story when they’ve done something that fewer than 1 in 2,000 American adults has ever done. That’s not a participation trophy moment. That’s a before-and-after moment. WeROCK understands this — the self-esteem gains aren’t a side effect. They’re the point.
Custom Otto Cap Trucker Hats · Screen Printed by BFI · Santa Ana, CA
Otto Cap foam front truckers in Black · Navy · Orange · Pink — screen printed with the WeROCK logo in Santa Ana, CA
This Weekend — Be There
The Hoag OC Marathon takes place May 2–3, 2026 in Costa Mesa. If you want to see something worth seeing, position yourself at Mile 21. That’s where the rest stop is. That’s where kids who started with one mile back in September come through having already run farther than most adults ever will — and still have 5.2 miles to go. They’ll be wearing orange WeROCK shirts. They’ll look tired. They’ll keep going.
Volunteer at Mile 21
WeROCK needs volunteers at the rest stop this Sunday. Show up, hand out water, cheer loud. You’ll see something you won’t forget. Reach out at info@werunockids.org or visit werunockids.org to learn more, donate, or get a kid enrolled.
Made in Orange County. By people who earned their second chance.
