Mayor's Hike, Bike and Paddle draws almost 10,000 to the waterfront for Labor Day fun

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The sunshine and dry weather helped to boost attendance at the Mayor’s Hike, Bike and Paddle event Monday. The event is all about promoting health and wellness in the city with family friendly ways to get active.

“We’re in our eleventh year, so 22 events under our belt. It seems to grow every year. People have been really receptive to it,” said event organizer Corey Sims.

Cyclists rode a 15-mile route to Shawnee Park and back while runners took a trip along the riverfront and paddlers headed through the McAlpine Locks to New Albany.

“We thought it would be a fun activity for the kids to take them through the locks,” life-jacket-clad mom Jennifer Brey said. “My son has always been interested in the river so we thought we’d get out and kayak and go."

The goal of the day's event was to get the most number of paddlers in a lock system at the same time, but we won’t know if that record was broken for a couple weeks.

“Sometimes I come down here and run into people I haven’t seen in years,” paddler Mark Colvin said. “It’s a family function, it’s a beautiful, beautiful day.”

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer made improving the health and wellness of the city one of his goals when he took office in 2011.

“The stories I hear coming out of this are very inspiring,” Mayor Fischer said. “You see people with lots of weight loss that allows them to get off insulin – they were diabetics before – then they convince other people to get out and work out.”

“It’s nice,” a cyclist added “It gives people something to do and the fact that it’s free is great.”

Attendance was estimated at about 10,000 people Monday.