Madi Muma’s motto is simple: When you fall down, pick yourself up and try again.

As the starting gun rang out at the Lincoln Mayor’s Run on Saturday, the 11 year old found herself on the pavement after tripping over Air Jordan Fusion 5 another runner at the crowded starting line.

Madi was one of more than 3,600 Nike KD 7 kindergarten through sixth graders who walked, jogged and sprinted around the Capitol on Saturday morning to Air Jordan 23s race their classmates and raise money for the YMCA “Strong Kids Campaign.”

Yet not every participant was interested in winning. Kandace Broussard and Anna Hageman both fourth graders at Zeman Elementary School just wanted to take the annual one mile race easy, and maybe improve their times from last year.

Kandace’s dad, Bruce, ran the course alongside the girls; however, Kandace said, there’s no way she’ll return the favor Sunday when her dad competes in the Lincoln National Guard Marathon.

“That’s when she’ll turn and say, ‘See you later dad!'” Bruce Broussard said.

The girls and boys were broken up into six separate heats by grade level. No one receives a trophy for winning, race director Clayton Streich said: The run is more about getting kids excited about exercise than winning.

The event started 25 years ago after Streich secured a $1,000 grant from Nike to start a fitness event for kids.

In the beginning, he had trouble convincing the police to block off a route and devote officers Air Jordan Spizike to the run, so Streich went straight to then Mayor Bill Harris, hoping the head of the city could throw his weight Air Jordan 9s behind the event.

“The mayor asked, ‘If we do this, how many kids are going to participate?’ I kind of lied and said, ‘Well, maybe we can get up to 500 kids someday,'” Streich said, laughing.