Brittany Pearson treated her warm-up for Tuesday’s night’s Baked One Miler run like any run she might do on a Tuesday afternoon, with her dog Fawkes.

The playful Australian Shepherd accompanied her along Millennium Trail to the start of the race at Spook Creek.

But for the next five minutes and 42 seconds, Pearson ran solo – or as solo as you can be in a group of 24 runners all racing on a metre-and-a-half section of asphalt trail.

“He didn’t do the race because I knew he might trip a few people,” said Pearson at the finish, once again joined by Fawkes. “I can taste a bit of metal, so you know it was a good race.”

Pearson, who placed second at the Trail Half Marathon earlier this month, is used to running longer.

She is a regular attendee at the Tuesday night fun runs and said that she’s used to seeing the same 5K crowd at those weekly races.

Pearson said the one mile distance brings out a different crowd, one that is a lot younger.

“They push me,” she said. “It’s a little easier to see the finish line.”

Those youngsters, many of whom are coached and mentored by Don White, made up the bulk of the participants.

“It’s good to see some enthusiasm among young up-and-coming runners,” said winner David Eikelboom. “Joe (Parker) running a 5:0(3), like where the heck did he come from.”

Eikelboom led the group from the start, running along Millenium Trail from the Spook Creek trolley stop, past Shipyards Park and the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, to the finish at the Old Fire Hall.

Eikelboom said he could hear Parker’s footsteps behind him the whole way and finished just five seconds before the 16-year-old.

“At his age, he does six months of work, he’d be at that,” said Eikelboom. “He’s getting fast and he’s getting fast in a hurry.”

Eikelboom said he’s excited to see how the young runner improves in the next few years.

“It means I need to keep training for sure,” he said, “otherwise he’s going to start kicking my butt.”

Parker, a soft-spoken teenager, ran his first 10K race last week at the Yukon

Championships. He placed third-overall behind heavy-hitters, Lindsay Carson and Brendan Morphet.

Parker, one of White’s athletes, may end up attending the B.C. Cross Country Championships this fall and said he’s racing now to get “better at pushing myself and (get) more comfortable with racing.”

Coach White’s runners carry themselves with a sense of pride. A handful ran the one-miler in their Team Yukon singlets.

Next summer, Yukon will send a contingent of the youngsters to the Canada Summer Games in July and August in Winnipeg.

After the race wound down and the Baked giftcards were distributed, Eikelboom stuck around to help with the take-down of the finish.

He was energized as he talked about the young racers that took part in the race.

“I think it’s a testament to the good work Don does that they are excited to race and eager to do stuff like this,” he said. “You hear about kids burning out of sports all the time but to see them doing something like this is pretty special, so I think Don has done an awesome job.”

By Marissa Tiel Star Sports Editor