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Boardman mother and daughter team trains for Camel Crawl
By Bruce Walton
SALEM
Three days out of the week, 7-year-old Zoey Hill gets up with her mother at 4:30 a.m. to visit to the Boardman YMCA and run with her.
The happy mother-daughter team of Boardman are preparing for the third annual Camel Crawl at Forever Safe Farm Animal Education Center in Salem at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s not about time, it’s usually about just finishing with the pride of getting through it and doing it together,” Allana Walters said.
The two will make their first appearance at the Camel Crawl, something Zoey is excited for – but Walters is more excited for her daughter. Walters feels proud her daughter wants to be active outside while so many children her age aren’t.
“I love being outside in my playhouse, being outside and swimming, being outside doing anything,” Zoey said.
Although this is their first time at the Camel Crawl, this is far from their first race. The two have been running together since Walters first wanted to be healthier in 2014 and started training for a 5K run that year. When her daughter wanted to join in, the two inspired each other to keep going until they started running local races and have been working towards bigger races ever since.
“We each have our days where we struggle, but it’s just fun to do together,” Walters said.
They have run 11 races together, and Zoey said she plans on the goal of running eight races in 2016 by her eighth birthday in September. Their fourth race this year was the Youngstown Steelathlon urban adventure run June 25 where she placed third in her age group of 17 and under.
The two will participate in the crawl, which will have a mud run and obstacle course with a total of 19 obstacles, including a tire climb, a mud crawl pit and a rope climb.
Aside from running, Zoey stays active with swimming, bowling, floor hockey and ice skating. During the summer, she also enjoys spending her time at the Boardman Park Adventure Day Camp.
Walters said she hopes to lose more weight and stay healthy.
“It’s always been a struggle for me to exercise, and so I like the fact that she enjoys doing these things so young, and hopefully she won’t dislike exercise when she gets older,” she said.
Meanwhile, Zoey said she has big plans ahead for her future.
“I want to be one of the people on ‘American Ninja Warrior’,” she said, “I want that and really I don’t know what else.”
The mother and daughter are also excited to help raise money for animals in need, since all the proceeds from the Camel Crawl will help benefit the Forever Safe Farm. The event will start Saturday at 10 a.m. on a course through the estate of the animal farm. The event allows free spectators.