 
The kids are heading into the final week of the school year!
This week the kids returned to the Route 66 challenge after
taking the month of May off to... well... run and walk in a
different challenge! Two teams at Russell Elementary school
(involving all students in grades K-5) virtually raced Paul Staso 620 miles across Montana in May.
Paul actually ran from the North Dakota border to the Idaho
border all alone in 20 running days, and he actually
finished before both of the teams from Russell School... who were trying to
beat him by adding up their walking and running mileage at school.
Paul averaged 31 miles per day through snow, rain, sleet,
heat, wind and more. You can learn all about
P.A.C.E. Trek 2008 at
pacetrek.com.
Both of the teams from Russell Elementary finished the trek
before the end of May and can be very proud of themselves. The BIG news is that the kids returned to
their 2,278-mile Route 66 challenge and after nearly 9 months of
running and walking throughout the school year they are nearing the finish line
on the California coast!
The last time we reported on the 4th grade team, they were
between Ludlow and Barstow, California... in the Mojave
Desert! They are now on the eastern edge of Los Angeles in a
location known as Pasadena and are a mere 13 miles from the
finish line at the Santa Monica pier. They are ahead of the
5th grade class by 43½ miles and it appears that this year
the 4th graders will finish the virtual trek first!
Currently, the 4th graders are on the Rose Parade route.
They're about to head into downtown Los Angeles where they
will really have to watch out for the busy traffic! What's
most exciting is that each child in the 4th grade class only
has to run about 1/3 mile for them to be across the finish
line! As a group, they're literally about 3 to 4 minutes
from finishing this journey across 8 states. Along the
remaining 13 miles they'll go past the western boundary of
Beverly Hills, and then they'll go along "Century City"
(which is where they may see some movie stars and
celebrities). Then, they'll enter Santa Monica where it's a
short mile or so to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The
sounds of seagulls will fill the air and the sea air will
welcome the weary runners and walkers. It's what they've
been working 9 months toward as a team - crossing through
some very difficult countryside and virtually becoming part
of Route 66's history.
The last time we reported on the 5th grade team, they were
in Ludlow, California. As we mentioned, they are only 56½
miles from the finish line. To complete the journey, each
member of the 5th grade team only has to run/walk about 1⅓
miles. That would take the group only about 15 to 16 minutes
to accomplish together. So, the 5th graders should be able
to complete this long Route 66 journey before taking off for
summer vacation next Thursday, June 12. Currently, they're
near Glendora, California - where they'll see some main
street buildings that haven't changed in a hundred years. It
won't be long before they'll be smelling the sea air and
hearing the crashing of the waves on the shore. The 5th
graders have persevered as a team and can certainly be proud
of their accomplishment this year.
Aside from the 2,278-mile Route
66 challenge, both classes participated in the P.A.C.E. Trek
2008 event with other students in Russell School. All
together, the students of Russell Elementary (K-5) logged
more than 6,000 miles during this school year through their
running and walking in P.E. class. That's an impressive
amount of mileage for one school year. Russell Elementary
kids are simply awesome and are a wonderful example to
others of the importance of pursuing fitness and persevering
through a running and walking challenge. All of the kids can
be proud of what they've achieved this year and hopefully
they will want to continue with recreational running and
walking during the summer and throughout life. Perhaps some
of them will want to participate in this year's
Missoula Kids
Marathon, which will be on July 13. There are
a lot of running and walking opportunities in Missoula and
we hope that the kids will be involved in some of the fun
events that are organized each year.
Please check back at the end of
next week for the final results to this Route 66 trek. It
has been a great year and the kids deserve your
congratulations in the
guestbook!
Click Here To Read The Next
Journal Entry > >
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5th Grade (42 students): The
5th graders were credited with 125 miles from their
involvement in P.A.C.E. Trek 2008 during the month of May.
This week they added
14
more
miles to their Route 66 distance.
Their Route 66 total is now
2,221½
miles.
They have 56½
miles left and are 97% done with the trek.
