AURORA - Aurorafest has been a long-standing tradition in the village of Aurora - a time to celebrate life and the beauty of the village.

Saturday morning, the celebration kicked off in grand style with the annual Aurora Run.

Crissi Brozon, who along with Bill Mullarney, is a co-organizer of this year's run, and said the run has been going on since at least the 1970s and then was revived in the '90s.

This year's event drew 150 competitors of all ages to the streets of Aurora to try their luck at the 1-mile run or the 2.5-mile run.

“It is a hometown race and the turnout is great,” Brozon said. “This is a good size race and a good number of people. We want this to be a hometown kind of race; we don't want it to get too big.”

This small hometown feel is also reflected in the way runners approach the race.

“There are people that do take it pretty seriously and use it as a way to get baseline time,” Brozon said. “But really it is just a fun run, really relaxed, it is just a way to get people together to have fun.”

Among those having a good time was Greg Otis, of Sherwood, who brought his 5-year-old son, Jackson, out to run the 1-mile course with him.

Otis had run in the race years ago and decided to participate again this year with his son and other family that were in town visiting.

“I thought it would just be something fun for us to do together,” Otis said. “We have some other family here and it seemed like I good idea. I really enjoyed it and I think Jackson had a lot of fun too.”

This year also drew a number of first-time runners.

Brendan Montgomery, 19, of Aurora decided to give it a go.

“I had a friend bet me five dollars,” Montgomery said. “She didn't think I could do it.”

Despite being the last one on the line and not even having a chance to tie his shoes, Montgomery took the top spot, and won his five dollars, in the 1-mile race.

“I'm all about it,” Montgomery said. “It was a lot of fun, I think it is awesome they do this.”

Taking the top spot in the 2.5-half mile course for the men was Chris Sheaffer, a Virginia resident, who is spending his summer in Ithaca.

Sheaffer said he read about the race online.

Sheaffer often spends his weekends competing in small road races and was excited when he heard about the Aurora Run.

“They did a really nice job,” Sheaffer said. “They put together a really well organized race. It was a lot of fun.”

Deanna Grant, of Ledyard, took the top spot for the women in the 2.5-mile run.

This year also marked her first time competing in the race.

Grant said that generally she is used to longer races, like half marathons, but living so close to Aurora there was no way she could pass up the opportunity to run in this year's event.

“I had to pace my self for this,” Grant said. “That was kind of fun. But it was a really good race, I had fun running.”