Why I Started Kids Run This Town: Movement, Confidence, and Finding Joy Without Pressure

Let Me (Re)Introduce Myself

Someone recently asked me why I started Kids Run This Town, and mid-answer I realized something important:

There are a lot of people in this community I haven’t met yet.

So instead of giving my usual “short version” (which, if you know me, is never actually short), I thought I’d properly introduce myself.

Hi. I’m Olivia Savage; runner, coach, mom, lifelong athlete, and the person behind Kids Run This Town.

And I have loved movement for as long as I can remember.

My earliest memories aren’t of cartoons or toys. They’re of sidelines, cleats, whistles, and my dad coaching my soccer team. He was an athlete too, and movement was simply part of life in our house. Not something you earned. Not something you specialized in too early. Just something you did...together.

I played soccer for nearly 16 years, but I never believed in staying in one lane. I swam. I played water polo. I ran track and field, where sprinting and jumping felt like flying for a few seconds at a time. I loved the feeling of momentum. Of learning what my body could do by doing it.

I didn’t fall in love with movement because I was always winning. I fell in love with it because it made me feel alive.

That love followed me into adulthood, where I apparently decided to try everything. I’ve run countless 5Ks and 10Ks, completed triathlons, and in 2012 I crossed the finish line of the London Marathon, a day that was equal parts joy, exhaustion, disbelief, and the strong realization that humans are capable of far more than we think.

But here’s where the story shifts.

When I became a parent, movement stopped being just about me. Suddenly, it was about the tiny humans watching everything; how I moved, how I talked about my body, how I handled hard things.

I wanted my kids to be active. But more than that, I wanted them to love moving.

And when I looked around, I saw no shortage of competitive youth sports teams. What I didn’t see enough of was space, space for kids to explore running without racing, jumping without being measured, throwing without pressure.

Space for kids who just want to try.

So I built the space I couldn’t quite find.

Kids Run This Town was never meant to be a traditional club. It was meant to be a movement community, rooted in track & field principles, yes, but driven by joy, confidence, and curiosity.

A place where kids learn how to run, jump, and throw well.

A place where effort matters more than outcomes.

A place where confidence grows quietly, week by week.

Along the way, I deepened my own learning, becoming a certified running coach, kids coach, and Generation Pound instructor, because fun and fundamentals don’t have to compete. They actually work best together.

We added volleyball when we saw a need there too. And that part is very much a family affair. My husband has played indoor volleyball for over a decade, assisted with the Beach Volleyball Olympics in London, and worked on the European Beach Volleyball Tour. Our volleyball coaches are USA Volleyball certified, and the same philosophy applies: skills first, confidence always, fun woven through everything.

At the center of every Kids Run This Town program; from running and track & field to volleyball and family movement events, is one belief I come back to again and again:

Movement should build kids up, not burn them out.

It should teach them how to try.

How to keep going when something feels hard.

How to feel proud of effort, not just results.

And it should bring families along for the ride, because movement is better when it’s shared.

If you’re new here, welcome.

If you’ve been with us for a while, thank you for being part of this growing community.

And if you’re still figuring out where your child fits in the world of youth sports, know this:

There is room here.

There is no pressure here.

There is joy here.

This is Kids Run This Town.

And I’m really glad you’re here.