Starting an School Aged Running Club

Setting up a School-aged Child Running Club

1. You need a leader who is strongly committed to running or fitness.

Perhaps you want to start a running program and you've never participated in exercise, then start now and work your goals along with those of the children in your program. Children can be great motivators.

Keep in mind that you don't have to be a competitive runner; however fitness should be a part of your lifestyle. Kids respond to sincerity. If you are truly dedicated to what you are teaching they will respond. You can't fool kids.

2. The support of the administration is a key component. If you are hoping for a whole school program you will also need the support of the teachers.

You'll need evidence of the looming health crisis due to obesity and sedentary lifestyles in children and a proposal to present to faculty members. Be prepared to be flexible and let others help you with the planning. If you are not the Physical Education Specialist in your building, enlist their help in the planning.

 
If you are designing a recess mileage program with volunteers, you'll want to make the recording of the mileage simple so as to not burden the teachers with extra work. The Medtronic TC Kids Marathon website allows you to log total group miles, so kids can record on their logs and all you need do is total and enter.

3. It helps to have volunteers, but it’s not necessary if your group is small.

If you need help, ask the parents of the children involved or talk about it at your PTO or PTA meeting.

4. Start planning your program.

Decide if it will be a mileage program, where kids keep track of miles and work for personal or group goals. Choose your incentives for reaching certain milestones. Many schools give 'toe tokens' or other trinkets to kids to collect. Incentives are available for every 12 week cycle to schools in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin found under the Incentive Tab on this website.

As an idea other schools have incorporated geography and mapped a route across the country so that the whole school can work toward a community goal. With this type of program, historical facts and points of interest can be explored.

If you don't opt for a mileage program, decide on your focus as you will need some kind of end goal. In any event, a school running program should be enjoyable with participation being the goal. Remember you're not going to be acting as a coach to train kids for the Olympics in a recess or an after school program. It should be fun!

5. Find a running route.

Work with the school to secure an appropriate running route. Use a track, field, gym, trail, or black top on the school grounds. Use cones to mark off certain distances: 1/4 miles, 1/2 miles, 100m, 200m, 400m etc. You can vary surfaces for fun. If your school doesn’t have an appropriate space contact your district Jr. High or High School or local Park and Recreation Department to find the nearest outdoor or indoor space. You might be able to engage in a wonderful new partnership.

6. Obtain some equipment.

Optional equipment includes: cones, stop watch, clip boards, batons, tokens, first aid kit, and running journals or logs. Download the logs from this website or create your own.

7. Schedule your Program

Choose a schedule to optimize participation. Recess is popular for mileage programs. You have a captive audience.

Some clubs meet before or after school, or alternate between these periods on different days. Other schools incorporate their running into the school day. Try fall or spring to start and then increase to the entire school year. In any event, do what is best for your school population and stick to the schedule.

8. Work with the school administration on a permission form.

Your school system should be able to advise you on the necessity for having waivers. At most schools there will already be sports programs and procedures in place. Get your form approved by the principal before it is sent home.

Make sure to let parents know about the benefits of the program, logistics, any fees to attend, time and place, contact people, etc.

9. Structure your sessions.

Kids are comfortable with structure. First, design a general structure for each time you meet. Here's an example for an after school program.

3:00 Arrive at meeting place. Check in with leader. Put belongings in certain spot. Check to see that shoes are tied.
3:10 Meet to go over activities.
3:15 Stretching
3:20 Warm-up laps
3:25 Running Activities: perhaps laps for mileage, running games, running drills, relay races
3:45 Warm-down laps
3:50 Stretching
3:55 Wrap-up discussion, journal writing, discussion of next session.

Next, decide if each day will include the same activities or if some days will be mileage days and other days, game days. Try to stick to your structure with occasional minor changes. Plan for the weather.

10. Weave good running practices into your sessions.

Spend some time deciding which basic principles you want the kids to learn about running and nutrition and make sure these principles are woven into your sessions.

Here are some suggestions:

• Pacing yourself makes you a stronger runner.No matter what kind of program you plan, kids need to learn to pace themselves. They need to be taught to start out slowly and pick up the pace only after running with a good steady rhythm, instead of going out as fast as they can at the start.
• Good sportsmanship is a quality of a true athlete.Great runners exhibit good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship includes cheering for and congratulating others. It also includes not giving up. Mentoring or peer coaching is a great way to teach respect for one another.
• Advocate for creating a healthy lifestyle.Exercise and a good healthy diet are the building blocks of healthy living. Habits developed at an early age carry forward into later life. Use the opportunity to teach good nutrition and its relationship to running, exercise and learning.
• Having a personal goal can help you accomplish things. Goal setting can be incorporated into your season. Kids should be able to come up with reasonable goals for themselves or for the whole group. Try journal writing to keep track of goals.
• Running long distances develops over time.Start out with short distances and gradually increase with time. Use age-graded distances. Some kids will prefer shorter track distances. Welcome both styles to your program.

11. Spice up your Program.

Vary your games. Obtain a book of outdoor games and plan carefully for them.

Use your stopwatch. Choose a couple days a month to time kids on a route. Have the kids set their own goals and keep track of their times. Encourage them to compete against themselves, not against their peers.

Teach them some fun drills to give strength, speed, or agility. If you're not familiar with these, visit with a track team yourself, practice with them and learn the skills to teach your kids or better yet, invite members of the high school track team to demonstrate and work with your kids.

Invite the high school kids back to demonstrate and teach your kids how to 'pass off a baton' for relay races. Use makeshift batons. Toilet paper tubes, squeeze toys (dog bone shaped ones) are great but also plan for one day when the kids get to use the real batons borrowed from the track team.

Let kids create running games. Listen to their ideas and choose some to incorporate in your sessions. Kids can also create some of the materials for running games in the classroom.

12. Integrate Academics

Capitalize on kids' natural love for running to help them learn academics. The tie-ins are endless. Even if you are not a teacher, you can probably use at least one school bulletin board to put up a map and track your group's mileage across the country, thus integrating running and geography. Lots of schools have mini-competitions between classes to see which class can accumulate more miles each week. So set a distance goal and see if you can reach it by a certain date.

• In the classroom, let kids keep running journals or write letters to famous runners.
• Use running charts and have kids keep them in their desks to track their mileage. Use them to help with math and calculations of kilograms, miles, time.
• Invite a local runner to the program for a presentation or question and answer period. Let the kids come up with the questions. Plan the program so that the kids can do a short run with your visitor. Take photos and send thank-you notes.
• Have kids write stories using running as a theme.
• Read books about famous runners.
• Study nutrition. Use the food pyramid activities found on the resource links on this site.

The ways to integrate are many. Once you get started, it'll be hard to stop.

13. Read!

Use the informational books and materials suggested in our Resource Section. They will give you activities to do at home and at school, suggestions on getting started, rules to help implement your programs, information on suggested distances, ideas for games to use or adapt, and just about everything that you could want to help you build a program to meet the needs of your group. Oh yes, visit this Web site often to log miles, pick up new tips and ideas and keep your enthusiasm high.

14. Attend an event.

The Medtronic TC Kids Marathon has 3 different events each year. Gear your club to finish on a high note for the season and plan to attend one of them in February, May or October.

If your local town has other local races, go as a group, or send a notice home to parents to let them know about the race. Encourage your kids to keep running in the summer and attend an event to keep interest strong for the next school year.