Motivating the indoor-play generation to run

More than 10 years ago, the Salisbury Rowan Runners and the Rowan County YMCA partnered to provide an afterschool running program to every elementary school in the county. Some of us were better at it than others but I think we all enjoyed the effort and so did most of the kids.

You might think that we went out and ran laps over and over. Once in a while, we did just that, but such a program wouldn’t have been very interesting without mixing in a lot of play. Games and more games were the source of great fun for all. I wrote about some of these games several months ago and received reports that they were being used in various group settings.

Rowan County has 20 elementary schools and about half of them have walking/running tracks already established. Healthy Rowan has committed to make sure a measured walking/running track is soon available at every one of them.

Before I get started, here is a fact that may be lost on most adults. Younger kids, or at least a larger percentage of them, are much more naturally able to play games that involve constant motion. By that I mean that more second graders than sixth graders could go out and run a quarter mile easily. I saw it all the time. My point by providing more games is the hope that school staff, parents and church group leaders might use “play” to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle and, more importantly, keep it going.

Running fast to kids is fun, energizing and exciting. Ask a kid to go out and just run endless laps and they might do it reasonably well. Ask them to do a drill or game that has speed involved and you’ll get a whole different attitude. Elementary kids like to show how fast they can run and love to have their teachers, parents and coaches talk about it.

So, here are a couple of games that can be used on oval tracks or set up in open areas. For simplicity sake, I will describe them on the tracks.

Using small cones for markers works well and the kids like them. I love relays, by the way. Put a cone at each quarter point of your track. Divide the kids into teams and place one kid per team at each cone. Use a boat horn or something unusual to start the relay.

The first runner on the team runs to the next cone and then tags that runner and so on all the way around the track. Have them continue until everyone is back where they started. Give a short rest period and watch for the excitement.

Go again and again and before they know, each kid has run a long way and there was no drudgery. The most fun will be when the teacher or leader joins in because the other teams will work their hardest to defeat them. The cones can be used later for halves or thirds of the track and kids will run longer distances fast. For more fun, use an actual baton to pass between team members.

A variation is to have a team runner carry an item from point A to point B, then run back to point A to repeat the process bringing a second item to point B and so on.

Have the second team runner take the first item and move it around the track back to point A and so on. Number of kids involved and variations of these two games are endless. For great fun and plenty of laughter, use eggs as the item to be moved. Better have paper towels ready.

The New York City Marathon, my favorite, is today. Watch for an upcoming report on a large contingent of Salisbury area runners and their experience. Race coverage begins at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.

Have a wonderfully active week!