Suffolk on the Move walk/run races back for second year

Citizens all over Suffolk are encouraged to stretch their legs and get moving at the second annual Suffolk on the Move walk/run.

The event, sponsored by the Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community and Suffolk Parks and Recreation, will be held June 11 at Constant’s Wharf and is free of charge.

Suffolk on the Move chairman Karen Brower said she hopes the event is even bigger than last year’s, which saw nearly 600 participants.

“We’re hoping people will spread the word and have an even larger participation,” she said.

The walk/run was held for the first time last year as part of the Suffolk on the Move initiative to get citizens more active and to fight obesity.

“We really want to give people opportunities to get out and move,” she said.

Attendees have the option of completing the five-kilometer event, which equals about 3.1 miles, or the one-mile event.

Brower said the events are intended to be about movement, not speed, and people at all different levels of fitness are encouraged to participate.

“It’s really open to anybody,” she said. “It’s just a matter of taking it at your own pace. We aren’t going to leave you hanging out there.”

Brower said she would advise anyone who thinks they can’t do it, to get out there and at least try it.

“It never hurts to try,” she said. “There’s no contract that says you have to finish, and if you don’t feel like it, you can turn around and come back.”

Many of last year’s participants had very little experience with races, Brower said.

“We had a lot of people who did it last year that had never done anything like that before,” she said.

But after they completed the event, Brower said many people asked her when they would have another walk/run because it had been great motivation to start exercising.

“It’s not difficult to do,” she said. “All you have to do is put on a comfortable pair of shoes and get out there and move.”

The 5K will begin at 8 a.m. the day of the event, with the one-mile starting at 8:15 a.m. There will be a warm-up at 7:45 a.m.

Wheelchairs, wagons and strollers are welcome, but bicycles, roller skates and skateboards are not allowed.

In order to participate, registration is required by June 8. To register, visit www.suffolkpartnership.com or www.suffolkva.us/parks and print a registration form. Instructions for submitting the form are listed on the document.

There will be no on-site registration.