"That's what she means by run," mother Deborah explained.

Three generations of their family will have their running shoes on for the 27th Annual Straub/Kapi'olani Women's 10K — Hawai'i's lone female-only race — Sunday.

Anna, who will be pushed in a jogging stroller by Deborah, 35, will be joined by her grandmothers Dr. Rose Marie Prits and Carolyn Mueller, both in their 60s, and sister Julia, 6, in the race.

"It's special, the realization that there's three generations that can take part in this," Prits, of Kane'ohe, said.

More than 1,500 females will participate in the 6.2-mile race, with a course that wraps around Kapi'olani Park, through Diamond Head and Kahala, and back. The race begins at 7 a.m.

The family, which includes grandfather Richard Prits, father Dan Mueller and 6-month-old baby William, walks around Lanikai Loop in Kailua on Sundays to train for the race. They follow their weekly training with breakfast.

"It's been neat because we get to spend time together," Deborah said.

On Sunday, the males in the family "have to wait on the side and wave to us," Deborah said. "But we're not skipping out on any of the girls in our family, we all get to go."

Prits will be participating in her ninth Straub/Kapi'olani Women's 10K.

"Every year I got better, and I said by the time I'm 80, I'm going to win the race," Prits said.

She is a physician in internal medicine at the Straub Clinic and said she started running in her 50s. She had been telling her patients to do so, and she figured she would "practice what I preached."

Her move to Hawai'i from Pittsburgh about 15 years ago helped get her running.

When Deborah followed, meeting her husband Dan in the process, the family was together again. Which, they said, makes this race even more significant.

"This race is special, and it's even more special that we're all in the same place," Prits said.

Prits runs about eight miles a week with her husband Richard for training.

Deborah, on the other hand, does a "different kind of training. I chase my children around all week," she said. She said the family's Sunday training is "for leisure."

The family plans to walk this race so it can finish at the same time, "holding hands." But Deborah teased that "it's going to be hard for (Rose Marie). She's going to see people running by and she's going to want to go."

It is the first race for Julia, who at 6 years old, is of the minimum race age.

The Iolani first-grader said she wants to race because as she told her mother and grandmother, "I want to be like you guys and I want to be big."

She's also excited she gets to wear her own number, and said this is her training so she can "walk to Disneyland."

"She's been a real trooper," Deborah said of Julia.

She said Julia has been wanting to participate in the race for the past two years, because she has been watching her grandmother Rose Marie do it every year. The family would usually wait at the finish line with roses.

This year, Julia said she expects five from her father.

Deborah ran her first Straub/Kapi'olani Women's 10K before she had Julia, her oldest child.

"I can't believe I have a 6-year-old who can enter the race," she said.

Anna, who at age 3, is too young to officially be a part of the race, was given a title by her mother and grandmother as a "trainer who tells us when to stretch," and will still be a part of the female-only day.

Prits said she is happy that her grandchildren see her dedication to running, and in turn, are starting to get involved with exercise at such a young age.

"I always say kids do what you do, not what you tell them to do," she said.