 
This was a week of getting settled into some of the general
routines of physical education class. The kids earned their
mileage by running some laps in the gym as a warm-up for
other activities, and they also added miles by practicing
for the PACER test - which has nothing to do with the "PACE"
events we put together. The PACER test is a running/aerobic
test that is a part of the
FitnessGram test (a national
test to measure the fitness level of children). PACER stands
for "Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run".
As you can see by the distances for each grade level shown
above, there is only a half mile separating the fourth and
fifth graders. Currently, they are between
Joliet, Illinois
and
Pontiac, Illinois.
Next week they will cross the point where Paul Staso
encountered Route 66 in Illinois during his
2006 Run Across America.
The boys and girls on each team are probably wishing that
they had picked up some Milk Duds for energy before leaving
the starting line in Chicago. So, you're probably wondering
what in the world we mean by that! Well, near the starting
line of Route 66 in Chicago
there is
a restaurant
called
"Lou
Mitchell's"
(at 565 W. Jackson Boulevard) and they give free
Milk Duds to each woman and child customer. No joke!
The kids have already run through such locations as
Cicero, which was a place of mobsters and gangsters
in the 1920s and 1930s, and
the town of Cayuga - where there still exists a barn-side ad for
Meramec
Caverns on Route 66 in Missouri. Meramec Caverns has always
been one of the most aggressive and colorful of all highway
advertisers. However, the kids won't be running past the
caverns until we're in Missouri next month.
As they approach
Pontiac, Illinois next week they'll be in
the area of the Old Log Cabin Inn. When the Inn was
constructed many, many years ago its front faced the Route
66 highway. However, when an alignment of Route 66 was
needed near the Inn due to a railroad, the new alignment of
the road
placed Route 66 behind the Old Log Cabin Inn. How did they
resolve the problem of having the traffic drive past their
back door? Easy... they jacked up the entire building and
turned it 180-degrees so that it faced the new alignment of
Route 66. That's one way of fixing the problem of having
customers drive past your back door!
So, the kids still have about 230 miles left to run/walk in
the
state of Illinois before entering Missouri. There's a
lot left to experience in Illinois, and we look forward to
sharing the details with the two grades.
Thanks for checking on the kids' progress as they continue
their trek!
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5th Grade (41 students): They
did 40½ miles this week.
Their total
is 58½ miles.
