Abstract
Introduction
Running is a relatively easy fitness activity that even the least “athletic” individuals can participate in to improve health and fitness. While children and adolescents perceive positive benefits from engaging in physical activity such as running, they are demonstrating a lack of confidence to participate. 4 Unfortunately, running is oftentimes used as a source of punishment, causing individuals to perceive a negative association with this activity. For example, students who fail to accomplish sport-specific goals may be asked to run as a consequence. Other negative associations with running may be due to forced competition. This may occur when students are asked to run specific distances or lengths of time as a part of physical fitness testing in the schools. Students may feel embarrassed due to a lack of aerobic training when compared to their peers.
Liew and colleagues 5 found a correlation between effortful persistence and running achievement in children and youth in the 5th–8th grades. The need to establish children's fitness levels and efficacy in their ability to engage in physical activity and maintain their physical activity levels is essential because the literature suggests a strong association between obesity in childhood and obesity tracking into adulthood. 6 Longitudinal data have also demonstrated that physically active youths have more of a tendency to be physically active adults than their sedentary counterparts. 7
How the Program Got Started
One mother, her son, and 3 of his friends founded the Macomb Road Racers Running and Fitness Club during May, 2004, with the mother's goal to have the teens discover that running could be a fun, confidence-building activity that could translate into other activities. By the end of the summer, the confidence to run farther distances had grown from running 1 mile through the community neighborhood to participating in a 4-mile race. Furthermore, 1 of the participants joined the high school's Cross Country athletic program. Participation evolved from 4 runners to approximately 50 runners within a 4-year time frame. Over 6 years, the program evolved into a nonprofit organization to encourage children 10–18 years of age to run as a method of maintaining and improving fitness over the summer months. The goals of the program are to: (1) Develop a lifelong commitment to fitness; (2) develop a love for running; (3) improve leadership skills; (4) improve self-efficacy; and (5) improve goal-setting skills. Besides the physical improvements that physical activity programs typically provide, additional goals are to increase running club participants' sense of personal power through establishing and meeting both short- and long-term goals of running. Runners can easily measure improvement as they walk fewer times on a 2-mile course, run farther before requiring a walking break, and increase their overall weekly mileage. A byproduct of achieving these types of measurable goals may translate to other areas of life.
Running is the perfect medium to increase cardiovascular fitness because the goals are easy to measure; it takes little coordination, and does not require a great deal of equipment. The program emphasizes running as an enjoyable activity that may continue to be an important component of a lifetime commitment to physical activity engagement and overall fitness.
The Program
In addition to the physical and psychological goals that are described above, the program is designed to provide a continuum of physical activity to compensate for the loss of structured activity when not in school. The running club has a secondary benefit of offering some structure to the summertime that otherwise may not be structured. For some individuals, the running club fosters an opportunity to maintain their fitness levels, whereas for others it offers an opportunity to learn a new skill. Learning individual strengths and skills for running translated into participating in school-sponsored sports and other competitive activities. The running club is designed to be a long-term, intermittent intervention. Many children participated over the course of 5–7 summers, supplementing their running and fitness activities with participation in school- and club-sponsored sports.
The free running club recruits its members through word of mouth, newspaper announcements, and flyers sent to the schools. The flyer explains that there is no charge for participation and that participants do not have to be a “good” runner or have any prior running experience to participate. Runners with a wide range of fitness levels and running abilities are encouraged to participate. Members of the club are expected to come with a desire to run, have fun, and encourage other runners. Interested runners, or “want to be runners” along with his or her parent(s) or guardian(s) are expected to attend one informational meeting. At that time, high school students wishing to volunteer as mentors to younger runners identify themselves and are required to proceed to “volunteer” status through additional leadership training.
During the training, volunteers are provided with education on how to lead stretching and core-strengthening exercises. Safety issues are addressed, including how to identify heat-related illnesses and crossing streets, and using positive reinforcement. Leadership training is provided, and volunteers have an opportunity to look at different leadership styles and how to establish rapport with group members. High school volunteers are shown appreciation for their efforts by having a cookout for them midway through the program.
The 8-week program is held 3 days a week for 90 minutes each morning; it starts by 8:30 in the morning and finishes at approximately 10:00 a.m. Each day begins with group volunteers (high school–age runners) leading the larger group (ages 10–14 years) through a series of warm-up exercises and stretches. Currently, the entire group divides into running distances of 2, 3, and 4 miles. The 2-mile distance acts as the shortest distance offered to new runners to ensure that the activity becomes truly cardiovascular due to the likelihood of it taking approximately 20 minutes or more to complete, initially. All runners are encouraged to run as much of the course as possible; however, participants may need to take walking breaks at the beginning of the program or when moving to a greater distance course.
Older volunteers elect which mileage and runners they will be responsible for on that particular day. Runners typically run in small groups and are not allowed to run alone. The group starts out together in the first mile and inevitably separates into smaller groups based on levels of fitness because some runners may need to take walking breaks intermittently. The runners who need to take walking breaks during the 2-mile course, typically finish ahead of those running the 4-mile course. This protects them from finishing last and encourages them to help motivate others by cheering other groups as they finish. Additionally, the stronger runners feel a sense of accomplishment by finishing a large goal and they benefit from the encouragement and admiration of the other runners. Once everyone has completed their run, the entire group performs a series of core exercises, as a cool-down activity, led by the volunteers. The activity takes approximately 15 minutes. The group shares a breakfast provided by parents, usually consisting of fruit, granola bars, muffins, and juice. Finally, the volunteers organize a game encouraging further physical activity for all group members. Younger runners who have not yet developed a love of running remain interested in the program because of the socialization during breakfast and the opportunity to play games with the older participants.
In addition to the physical activity portion of the program, local professionals from the community are invited to talk to the participants about different topics related to running. Topics range from methods of choosing appropriate running shoes to appropriate nutrition and hydration for running during the hot summer months. Additionally, a local physical therapist provides free gait analysis screenings for participants who are identified as having a problematic running form. By improving gait efficiency, participants reduce the likelihood of injury and improve their opportunities for success. Parents seem to appreciate the attention and the opportunity provided to address concerns that had been overlooked previously. The educational components are important for adopting a holistic approach to improving self-efficacy and motivation for future running experiences.
A unique aspect of this noncompetitive program is that children and adolescents of all fitness levels are encouraged to participate together without being judged. However, recent discussion has included the need for initiating the program for some individuals with lower self-esteem and fitness levels. The program would start toward the end of the academic year to reduce fears in some individuals who may require more individualized attention. The individualized attention would include strength training and begin with a walking program or running shorter distances, so that 2 miles is not as daunting when the program starts.
Outcomes of the Program
Efficacy of the program has best been established through anecdotal evidence. The following examples will help demonstrate how the goals of the program have been achieved thus far. In general, based on experience, the distance of 1 mile acts as a mental barrier or is perceived as physically painful. Once this barrier is broken, it opens doors to increase distance as confidence is built. The youth in the current running club are able to run 2–3 miles by the end of the 8-week program demonstrating improvements in self-efficacy or their confidence in running longer distances. This was noted by runners who were proud to tell their parents what distance they had run at the end of the day, as well as parents who expressed astonishment at their child's accomplishments.
A lifetime commitment to fitness and love for running—two of the goals of the program—have been demonstrated by both athletes and nonathletes. Several of the former participants who continue to run as college students, but were never associated with their high school track team, have taken it upon themselves to train independently for races, some as long as a half-marathon and marathon distances. Running these longer distances requires strong goal-setting abilities. Parents continue to express appreciation for the success of the program in motivating their children to continue running through their years at college and beyond.
The goal of improving leadership skills stemmed from the desire of younger runners to stay in the program throughout their teenage years to become a “volunteer.” One participant, specifically, had been in the program for 4 years prior to being old enough to be a volunteer. Despite being smaller than many of the runners whom she was leading, she worked hard to transform a group of young individuals into a cohesive running group. Ordinarily, this could be a difficult task if she had not set a realistic pace, kept them focused on completion, and made it enjoyable by keeping all members invested.
Furthermore, at the beginning of Road Racers, the high school cross country track team was in danger of being dropped. There were 7 members on the high school team at the time. As a result of the summer program, the cross country team has been revitalized, and the girl's team qualified for the state meet in 2011. This demonstrates that Road Racer participants are gaining confidence in their ability to run and enjoying it enough to cross over into competitive running.
Empirical evidence is necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program and this will be collected in the near future. Determination of program efficacy allows for future development of the program and will assist with expanding noncompetitive programs as a means of targeting less fit youth and investigating how a program such as this impacts self-efficacy in other areas of life.
Methods for determining the efficacy of the program include collecting measures of both physiological and psychological changes that are associated with the running club. We propose to collect baseline and postprogram physiological and psychological measures. Physiological measures such as resting heart rate and blood pressure, as well as heart rate during a 12-minute run/walk test and recovery heart rate postrun, would be collected. The heart rates during the run indicate exertion levels and the abilities of the participants to use their pacing skills. Overall distance covered will be collected to determine whether the participants increased their running distance and speed over the course of the 8-week program. This also may act as an indicator of better pacing skills.
A psychological measure that will be used to determine changes in self-efficacy is the Physical Self Description Questionnaire–Short Form (PSDQ-S). 8 The questionnaire was developed to measure specific, as well as global, measures of physical self-concept in adolescents. The PSDQ-S contains 40 items, 11 scales: Strength, Body Fat, Activity, Endurance/Fitness, Sports Competence, Coordination, Health, Appearance, Flexibility, Global Physical Self-Concept, and Global Esteem. Each item has a 6-point Likert true/false response scale. The scale was originally developed for use with adolescents but has been tested to be valid and reliable with all ages. 8
Conclusions
Improving fitness is imperative for preventing and reducing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Childhood and adult associations have been found for both obesity and physical activity levels. 9 In Europe, higher interage correlations for sport participation scores have been observed. Europe has a “Sports for All” theme, in contrast to the United States, where interscholastic sports programs are exclusive and the focus is on elite athletes. 10 Therefore, it is essential for greater noncompetitive programs to be established that adopt an “everyone can do it” theme if one is going to engage in physical activity or sport.
Furthermore, making physical activity a lifetime quest is related to one's efficacy and persistence. By making the activity less threatening and more enjoyable, adherence to the program and transfer to other activities may be established. Tremblay, Inman, and Willms 11 found that male and female 6th graders with higher levels of physical activity reported greater levels of self-esteem, which translated into greater academic performance.
The Road Racers Running Club encompasses the goals of improving youth physical and psychological well-being. Its noncompetitive spirit is inclusive of individuals with all types of fitness levels and has encouraged these individuals to initiate lifelong physical activity behaviors. Some of these behaviors have been in the form of running; others use the skill of running as a means to participate in other sports. Nonetheless, improving physical and psychological well-being through running has the ability to carry over into other aspects of life.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The Macomb Road Racers Running Club is a not-for-profit organization. This was made possible by the time volunteered by the law office of Sidley Austin, LLP. The authors would like to thank all volunteers and sponsors of the program that contributed time and other resources, such as equipment for play at the conclusion of the day's run. These volunteers and sponsors include parents of participants, as well as faculty and staff from Western Illinois University's Counseling Center and Kinesiology Department. We would also like to thank Western Illinois University's University Research Council for contributing the resources for equipment toward improving the program. We appreciate everyone's support for making running a fun and positive experience and encouraging a lifetime of physical activity.
Author Disclosure Statement
The authors are both employees of Western Illinois University. The authors declare no competing financial interest by sharing the program that is presented in this manuscript.