Twenty-four Renfrew elementary students from Grades 3 to 7 ran a mile in the shoes of marathon champions Friday morning at the East Side school.

Two-time BMO Vancouver Marathon winner Mary Akor, who is again favoured to place high in Sunday's long-distance race, led students on a lap of the field with last year's men's half-marathon champ Kibet Rutto.

Brothers Kip and Ed Kangogo also spoke and ran with the young students. Kip was last in Vancouver to win the 10k Sun Run. He won the recent 10k in Victoria.

The Vancouver Marathon begins 8 a.m. Sunday morning at Queen Elizabeth Park and takes a 42-km route west along 49st Ave, around the University of B.C. campus, past Spanish Banks and Jericho Beach before crossing the Burrard Bridge, circling Stanley Park and finishing downtown at Canada Place.

The 21-km half marathon takes a different course but starts and finishes at the same locations. The race begins an hour earlier at 7 a.m. and heads north, downhill on Cambie Street. Racers cross the bridge and follow a downtown route on the sea wall and through parts of Stanley Park.

For more information and detailed road closures, visit bmovanmarathon.ca.