Athens city center was flooded on Sunday morning by a pink wave of love and honor to Mothers, to life and to running at the 1st Athens Mother’s Day Run that attracted hundreds of mothers, fathers and children to a series of events and happenings headlined by a 2,200-meter race.

Organized by the City of Athens and “Marathon Team Greece by Maria Polyzou”, the family fun run starting and ending at Voukourestiou Street, Kolonaki filled the capital with joyful faces of parents and kids who joined the run-around along with side events such as face-painting, yoga for mothers and so on, in the first event of such kind on Mother’s Day in Greece.

“This was definitely better than expected,” organizer Maria Polyzou, Greece’s Marathon record holder, told Kathimerini.

“You could see the joy and moving feelings on the faces and the eyes of the children and their parents, and you knew it was worth all the effort,” she added, thanking the City of Athens and its volunteers for their cooperation to make this happen.

Part of the proceeds of the fun run, that intends to become an annual event on the second Sunday of May, has gone to the “Mitera” Foundation for Infants in Athens.

The best part of the event was the run’s jerseys: Instead of a number on them, there was space on which participants were able to scribble their own message to their mother, so that after the run they would be able to hand them over to her as a token of love, showing that they ran in her honor.

The sheer number and mood of participants and volunteers showed that even in crisis conditions, and especially no more than just seven days after the Athens Half Marathon, the Athenians are ever-so-eager to engage in fun sporting events that combine running with timeless family values.