“What led me to start with Marathon Kids was the opportunity to give the kids a mental break from our studies in a healthy and competitive way,” Avila says. “They love the competitive aspect of the program and racking up their miles. And they run more when they are using their Marathon Kids tags to log their miles.”

Her students do Marathon Kids during morning “Track Time,” when Avila takes them outside to run around the school’s track for 15 to 20 minutes. Ten loops around the track equals one mile; most of her students can log between a half-mile and a mile during a Track Time session.

To Avila, Track Time is like a reset button for her students, refreshing both their moods and their mental capacity for more learning. “If they’ve had a rough morning, they usually have a better disposition after running, which is awesome.” She has found that walking or running really helps students who have a harder time with behavior management throughout the school day.

Avila makes running even more fun for her students by awarding points for laps. “I incentivize them by giving them class points for every lap they complete,” she says. “So they are not only racking up their running miles, but they’re also racking up class points as well. No matter how much they are running, I always tell them they are doing a great job, and when they are doing more than usual, I absolutely make sure that I notice.”

Rebecca Lambdin-Abraham teaches PE at Maplewood; her email signature line reads, “Self-Proclaimed Revolutionary Physical Educator.” Along with teaching her own students, she supports Maplewood’s classroom teachers in leading W.O.W. time activities during class.

Lambdin-Abraham credits Marathon Kids Connect with making it easier for teachers to keep track of kids’ running progress. “It’s so much easier than coloring in their laps!” she says—the method used in years past for manually logging laps on paper. “Giving teachers and kids easy ways to get active helps increase whole-child learning. Oxygenated brains are better thinkers and learners!”

Along with Austin ISD classroom teachers, Lambdin-Abraham and the rest of the district’s PE teachers have access to the Marathon Kids digital platform to utilize during PE time. They play a key role as Marathon Kids facilitators on their campuses. They also lead the way in celebrating individual student, classroom and grade level achievements, and overall school success.

At Maplewood, all students in all grades, from Pre-K through fifth, participate in Marathon Kids. “Maplewood is lucky to have a very active community,” Lambdin-Abraham says. “We have a lot of families who walk and bike to school, and it’s great to feel that community support around being active.”

In Lambdin-Abraham’s longtime experience with teaching PE, kids are natural movers who love to run. “Don’t make kids run,” she says—since doing so can sap the joy out of it. Still, motivation is important for Maplewood’s Marathon Kids. “We have two trophies,” Lambdin-Abraham says, “one for Pre-K through second-graders and one for third- through fifth-graders, for the top class of runners. We pass them around every month to help keep motivation high.”

And the proof is in the pudding—or the running. “I have a kindergarten teacher whose class already ran 770 laps in the month of September,” Lambdin-Abraham says. That’s 77 cumulative miles for the group, and counting. “She says it's the best part of their morning to log in those miles and get themselves ready and focused for the day.”