If you’re looking for a fun, family-friendly race in Austin, the Daisy Dash Kids Fun Run is one of the cutest local events around. My kids and I ran it this year, and I’m sharing exactly what to expect — from registration and parking to race-day logistics and post-run fun.
Milo and Dayton have grown up watching me do races. They’ve spectated triathlons and half marathons since they were babies, so it only made sense that they would eventually ask me to sign them up for their very own race.
After running the Maudie’s Margarita Moonlight 5K this year with a few of my neighborhood friends, we moms all looked for another race and agreed on the Daisy Dash for a fun, local Austin race to do with our kids!
Milo and Dayton were soooo excited when I told them they had their very own race coming up. It was adorable.
About The Daisy Dash
It started 48 years ago as a women-only race in response to races like the Boston Marathon, which excluded women. It’s now open to all, but it still benefits The Girls Movement, a Marathon Kids program. I LOVED knowing that my race entries dollars are helping support such a wonderful cause.
Race details:
📍 Sunset Valley (southwest Austin)
🗓 Mid-October race
🏁 Timed 5k and 10k at 7:30 am
👦🏼 Kids 400m and 800m fun run at 9:00 am
🛍 Race Packet pickup is the day before the race at Academy Sports – Sunset Valley
🅿️ Free race parking at the Burger Activity Center
Our Morning at the daisy dash
One of my boys was really nervous, and the other was just SO confident and didn’t understand the nervous feeling at all. Haha.
They ate some breakfast, got dressed, picked out their shoes, (“mama, I’m wearing my light-up shoes so I distract people and then I can win!” <- solid race strategy), and loaded up in the car around 8:00 am.
Daisy Dash Austin is small! It was a really, really good race for the boys first race experience. It wasn’t crowded and overwhelming at all. I think overall there were like 500-600 runners? Something like that.
We got there when most of the 5k and 10kers were finishing up, so it was easy to find parking and walk over to the starting line.
My friend Kathleen was there with her two girls! She had just finished the 5k (yay Kathleen! You did so great!!) and so we all lined up in the starting corral for the kids 400m (1/4 mile) fun run.
It’s a very typical kids race: some kids dash off away from their parents and sprint to the finish, others trip and fall and insist they need to stop and wait for a bandaid, plenty of kids run for 30 seconds and then ask to be held for the remaining 350 meters…it’s all over the place. It’s a mess, and it’s so fun.
Every finisher gets a medal and a daisy flower. It was so cute to see how proud the boys were of their medals! Milo said he wants to get a special medal hook on his wall “just like Ama has” to show off his race medals. My mom has a lot of medals.
After the 400m race we all cheered on the 800m runners (Milo and Dayton said they’re definitely doing “the long race” next year 🙂 ).
Then the boys got some snacks (there were plenty of bananas and bags of popcorn leftover from the 5k and 10k race) and we meandered through the post-race area.
The boys, of course, found all the tents that had nerds clusters and fruit snacks available and grabbed a few samples. There was live music playing, it was the first cool fall morning we’ve had in a while, and over-all the vibes were high!
Sunset Valley just finished building this awesome new park called City HallBakyard. There’s not a lot of playground equipment there, but what they had was wildly entertaining for my boys because they stayed and played after the race for about an hour and a half! Nate and I found some chairs, got a Topo Chico bottle from a tent at the race, found some chairs, and enjoyed the morning while the boys played nearby.
After the race we stopped at Casper Fermentables, for bagel sandwiches – delish! It’s my very favorite sourdough bakery here in Austin, and it’s located just around the corner from Daisy Dash.
A Few insider Tips To Know For The Daisy Dash Kids Fun Run
They offer a 400 m and an 800m kids dash. It wasn’t clearly marked on the website until about a month before the actual race and I didn’t know if my boys were ready for a full mile race so I stalled on signing up for months! So in case you’re in teh same boat…just know tha the options are 1/4 miles or 1/2 mile!
There was a ton of parking available. I’m sure it varies year-by-year depending on how many race entrees there are, but in 2025 we had no problem finding parking at the Burger Activity Center.
The race is absolutely suitable for toddlers! Parents can run with the kids, and since it’s just 400m (think: one lap around a track) it’s pretty easy to hold your toddler if they get tired. Lots of 2- and 3-year-olds were running the race!
Everyone gets a medal! It wasn’t clear on the website so I didn’t want to tell my kids they would get a medal at the end…but I knew they would be extra excited about the hardware! So yes, every child gets a medal. It’s such a fun way to finish a race!
Daisy Daish is VERY small and low-key. It was organized well, but it is SO much smaller than a lot of the Turkey Trots or other fun runs I’ve done. It’s a tiny race with a small-town feel! If you want your kids to experience those big race vibes, this one isn’t really for you. If you want to just introduce them to the joy of the running community, Daisy Dash is the perfect race with a very low barrier to entry.
Overall, it was just a very sweet, fun, small local race and the perfect starter race for my kids to experience that incredible start line/finish line feeling! The running community is so life-giving and motivating, and I loved introducing my boys to the joy of participating in a race.
