In downtown Austin, streets were blocked off this weekend for a the 7th Annual Austin Marathon Relay. At Auditorium Shores Sunday morning, foot traffic took on a whole new meaning.
The 7th Annual Austin Marathon Relay is the largest fundraiser for the Junior Achievement chapter of Central Texas.
"We try to teach kids how to become successful adults relative to their financial management skills," said Dave Swincher with the Junior Achievement chapter of Central Texas. "How do they take care of their money, how do they learn to earn it, save it, keep it, invest it, spend it?"
More than 2,000 runners were divided in to teams of five. Each ran his or her allotted distance of the 26.2 miles of the marathon.
The event attracted those from near and far, from every walk of life and every age.
"It was a lot of fun -- I started us out," said Justine Wolfanger from team Beer and Goo. "I'm with a bunch of other people. Five people total, and two that I don't actually know, so it was wild."
Few at the marathon relay were wild about the heat. In fact race organizers moved up the last start time to 11 a.m. to try to beat the onset of triple digit temperatures.
"We moved it to September to make it cooler, but at the rate the temperature is going right now, this may be out hottest race ever, including the fourth of July," said Swincher.
"Yeah it was a little warm," said 11-year-old runner Preston Skelding. "The shady spots were awesome."
"I'll probably be here next year," said Wolfanger. "Hopefully it'll be cooler. It was kind of warm."
One team at the marathon relay came very close to breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for the marathon relay. Unfortunately they fell two minutes shy of breaking the record.
All these teams came out and braved the heat, to better the future of thousands of Central Texas kids.
