\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe 49th annual OUC Orlando Half Marathon is set to take place on Dec. 6 at Lake Eola, welcoming more than 5,000 participants to its inclusive event. Chris Nikic, a Special Olympics Florida athlete who made history in 2020 as the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon, is preparing to run the hometown half-marathon for the first time.”To blow past everyone,” Nikic said. “I have been doing half-marathons, which is pretty cool, and the crowd.” He is also proud to be a leader in recruiting athletes to participate, saying, “I am the top leader in recruiting athletes to come out and participate.”Chris’s father, Nik Nikic, shared insights into his son’s training regimen, noting, “Noah and his friends are helping him train by running at a faster pace for him. And teaching him what it feels like to run at, say, an eight-minute pace versus a 10- or 12-minute pace.” Nik also praised the event, saying, “OUC is wonderful, especially with track shack being part of it,” and emphasized the importance of the marathon, stating, “I think this is a great opportunity. For us to be an example for the rest of the world, and Central Florida and Orlando is a hub for all these things anyway.”Another inspiring participant is Caleb Prewitt, who, along with his mother Karen, will be traveling from Jacksonville to run the OUC half-marathon and the 5K. Caleb has completed 127 races, and they enjoy running together while raising community awareness and promoting inclusion. Karen expressed their passion for the sport, saying, “Do we love running? Yes. We love running \u2014 we love racing \u2014 we do triathlons as well, so we are kind of crazy.”She highlighted the importance of inclusion, stating, “For him to be included \u2013 for people to see him out running \u2013 to see what people with Down syndrome and other disabilities can do.”Caleb shared his favorite aspect of running.”So, running with mom,” Caleb said. “We usually run together. I think it’s just the community \u2014 we are part of a number of running groups. We just have a lot of fun with it.”Chris and Caleb are among the many remarkable runners to cheer for during the OUC weekend in downtown Orlando.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The 49th annual OUC Orlando Half Marathon is set to take place on Dec. 6 at Lake Eola, welcoming more than 5,000 participants to its inclusive event. <\/p>\n
Chris Nikic, a Special Olympics Florida athlete who made history in 2020 as the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon, is preparing to run the hometown half-marathon for the first time.<\/p>\n
“To blow past everyone,” Nikic said. “I have been doing half-marathons, which is pretty cool, and the crowd.” <\/p>\n
He is also proud to be a leader in recruiting athletes to participate, saying, “I am the top leader in recruiting athletes to come out and participate.”<\/p>\n
Chris’s father, Nik Nikic, shared insights into his son’s training regimen, noting, “Noah and his friends are helping him train by running at a faster pace for him. And teaching him what it feels like to run at, say, an eight-minute pace versus a 10- or 12-minute pace.” <\/p>\n
Nik also praised the event, saying, “OUC is wonderful, especially with track shack being part of it,” and emphasized the importance of the marathon, stating, “I think this is a great opportunity. For us to be an example for the rest of the world, and Central Florida and Orlando is a hub for all these things anyway.”<\/p>\n
Another inspiring participant is Caleb Prewitt, who, along with his mother Karen, will be traveling from Jacksonville to run the OUC half-marathon and the 5K. <\/p>\n
Caleb has completed 127 races, and they enjoy running together while raising community awareness and promoting inclusion. <\/p>\n
Karen expressed their passion for the sport, saying, “Do we love running? Yes. We love running \u2014 we love racing \u2014 we do triathlons as well, so we are kind of crazy.”<\/p>\n
She highlighted the importance of inclusion, stating, “For him to be included \u2013 for people to see him out running \u2013 to see what people with Down syndrome and other disabilities can do.”<\/p>\n
Caleb shared his favorite aspect of running.<\/p>\n
“So, running with mom,” Caleb said. “We usually run together. I think it’s just the community \u2014 we are part of a number of running groups. We just have a lot of fun with it.”<\/p>\n
Chris and Caleb are among the many remarkable runners to cheer for during the OUC weekend in downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 49th annual OUC Orlando Half Marathon is set to take place on Dec. 6 at Lake Eola,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9389,37281,37282,37286,23747,10081,18764,37285,37283,37287,37284,139,141,140,6337,3574,20963],"class_list":["post-61800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-athlete","tag-caleb-prewitt","tag-chris-nikic","tag-community-awareness","tag-disability","tag-down-syndrome","tag-importance","tag-inclusion","tag-inclusive-event","tag-ironman-triathlon","tag-mother-karen","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-ouc","tag-part","tag-participant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}