Tell them the fourth-graders may get there first.
In a virtual race across the nation, Russell Elementary School's upperclassmen pulled about 10 miles ahead of their younger classmates without ever leaving Missoula. They keep close track of their positions on a big map on the Russell gym wall.
Russell physical education teacher Vicki Stasso and her husband Paul set up the race as a way to get much more than sweat out of a little daily jogging. They devised a route from Cannon Beach, Ore., across 14 states and 3,200 miles to Cape Henlopen, Del.
"This is the full deal, foot for foot," said Paul Stasso, a Web site designer and ultra-marathon runner who once attempted a real cross-country run himself in 1986. "They've run 241 miles so far, which is 7 percent of the trek."
Here's how it works. During each PE class, the students spend a few minutes running around the winding trail through Playfair Park, just east of Russell School. Each loop is half a mile. The students keep track of their distance. Their cumulative total is added up at the end of each class, and the new location is marked on their map. The results are also posted on the project's Web site, www.seeusrun.com.
"We wanted to shift direction from playing games to more of a fitness perspective," Vicki Stasso said. "This way, you don't have to be the best runner, you just have to run."
Weather permitting, the kids run around the ballfields of Playfair Park. On rainy (or soon snowy) days, they do laps in the gym. It takes 22 times around for a mile.
"They don't like it as much inside," Stasso said. "They lose count, get confused and trip over each other. Outside, they're going somewhere."
And the places they've been. While the fifth-graders were warming up and stretching Thursday, Paul showed them photos of a replica of Stonehenge that stands near Maryhill. When they passed through Portland, a teacher there sent them a bag of saltwater taffy and some sand from a Pacific Ocean beach. Others have sent postcards of their locales as the students virtually pass by.
The project caught the interest of the national magazine Runner's World, which featured it in a Sept. 12 issue, and in Kids Running on Sept. 7. Vicki said it has also received attention from teachers across the country interested in setting up their own running challenge.
Closer to home, Russell teachers are following the run to build in the occasional geography or history lesson. The route follows large parts of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery path, giving plenty of opportunity for academic tie-ins. It will also pass Washington D.C., Revolutionary War sites and the industrial heartland of the nation.
For the students, the running gives focus to otherwise abstract exercise. They've even picked up some mental tricks to run faster.
"When you hold a leaf, it helps you run," said Isaiah Haines, who went so fast for the finish line he literally ran out of his own shoes. "I don't know why it works. It just does."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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