It’s almost impossible to tear kids away from their video games and smartphones. Usually.
A North Texas physical education teacher came up with a program that not only gets students moving, but also gets them ready to run a marathon.
“The program is called Marathon Kids,” physical education teacher Jamie Roach explained. “It starts with one kid and then it’s like a domino effect.”
Lake Dallas Elementary School students are running the race of their lives as a part of the Marathon Kids program which his in its third year.
“The goal is for students to reach four marathons by the end of the school year,” Roach said. “They can run before school, during recess, after school, during PE time.”
“I’m seeing little kids loving it. I cheer them on saying ‘you’re doing awesome’ because they are,” 5th grader Keagin Schweers said.
Already this year, students have run more than 8,000 miles.
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“Me and my brother love doing it,” Schweers. “We are now instead of comparing video game scores and high scores we are like ‘I ran this many miles and I ran this many miles!.’
At least two other elementary schools in the area have started the program and Roach would like to see it adopted across the district.
