With Saturday morning still young and cool and breezy, Sam Goff raced down the McCallie School track to loud applause, a shiny ribbon his reward at the finish line.
"He's been talking about this for two months," Sam's father Sean said as the 8-year-old stood on the Area 4 Special Olympics awards stand.
"I like running best," said Sam, who also threw the softball in his first-ever Games.
What Area 4 chairman Judy Rogers liked best about the 43rd annual Games was that they took place at all.
Shaking off temperatures in the 50s and gusting winds, Rogers thought back to Friday night's strong thunderstorms and said, "I'll take it over the rain."
A reported 299 athletes took to the track, field and softball toss - the largest contingent in several years.
One of those - 8-year-old Spring Creek Elementary student Janiya Mack - ran in three events, proclaiming herself "way fast."
The ribbons pinned to her red T-shirt supported her belief.
"This right here is why you get involved with sports and leadership and volunteering," said University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior quarterback B.J. Coleman, one of 20 Mocs who helped with the Games.
"These athletes play for the love of the game. This isn't about winning, or glory, or fame. It's about competing and having fun."
Nolan Elementary School teacher Amber Napier works daily with Goff and his fellow special-needs students to help them find fun through exercise.
"We try to have them run as often as possible," she said. "Exercise is good for every student."
So young Mack gobbled down her pre-Games breakfast of noodles, and Leslie Goff fed her son his preferred ravioli.
"Breakfast of champions," she said with a laugh.
The carbs seemed to work for both of them, their families and friends loudly cheering their successes.
"It's hard to describe," Sean Goff said. "It's hard to get Sam to move fast any other time. Then to see him run like that, it's very emotional."
It's what fun that competition can become when it isn't about winning, glory or fame.