Rancho Runners Take On The 'Mile Challenge'

From LVJUSD: There must be something special about a school where students’ smiles get wider after each lap they run in a mile. The Mile Challenge at Rancho Las Positas Elementary School arrived on May 11th as the culmination of another year of the Rancho Running Club that promotes throughout its school a culture of fitness, persistence, and fun. Introduced in 2008, the Mile Challenge has been an annual tradition at Rancho as a way to encourage students to participate in the running club, and to celebrate the school’s love of running that has permeated Rancho for the past decade.

In the 2006-07 school year, parents of Rancho students Bret Dupuis and Dave Hinds started the running program at their school that has flourished into an extraordinary event for the entire Rancho community. After the school received a grant for state-of-the-art fitness equipment in its playground as part of the Project Fit America program, Dupuis and Hinds were inspired to carve out a quarter-mile track from the school’s field with a lawn mower. At the start, the path was blazed simply by the active feet of dedicated runners. Eventually, through community fundraising, the school put in a full-fledged running track that now gets more use than ever, establishing running as Rancho’s favorite pastime.

“Our goal was just for the kids to have a place to run,” said Dupuis. In 2007, the Rancho Running Club collectively “ran around the world,” amassing over 24,900 miles – the circumference of the Earth – in 182 days. The next year, the participants accumulated around 40,000. “We just had a running craze,” said Dupuis. “Some kids have run over 450 miles over the course of the school year.” Over the last decade, students have settled into running between thirty and forty thousand total miles per year as a school. “One great thing about this program is that you have kids who aren’t afraid to run – they love it,” said Dupuis. “These kids grow up running. Kids like my daughter who were here in kindergarten when we started are now juniors in high school running for cross country teams.”

“This event is one of my favorites,” said Rancho Principal Steve Martin. “It represents the best in our school community. You can see how much the kids want to cheer for and inspire their classmates to do their best.” The good the Rancho Running Club and Mile Challenge do for the spirit of the school is obvious to all who come to the event. Classmates, friends, and family packed the field within and around the track, with students holding signs of support for the runner representing their class and ready with a high-five and encouragement for a good run. “I’m so proud of her,” said one parent after watching her daughter finish her run and hearing her time of6:44. “She just keeps getting better.”

The program has inspired many other schools in the District to develop a running club of their own for the variety of benefits Rancho enjoys. Not only does it serve to strengthen community bonds throughout the school, but it addresses the health of its students’ bodies and spirits as well as their minds. Students who participate in the running club have a model of improvement through hard work each day that, while outside academics, informs their educational mindset and commitment to challenging themselves.

While the Mile Challenge is a race, it also serves as a showcase and a celebration of the school’s dedicated community both in and out of the classroom - one that encourages everyone’s best efforts all the way to the finish line in a run, in school, and in their lives. This year, two students broke the school’s old mile record; Daniel Enrique and Zander Dennis finished in 5:41 and 5:46, respectively, indicating that Rancho’s Running Club will not be slowing down anytime soon. Said Dupuis, who continues to coordinate and volunteer for the Mile Challenge, “I want to stay until the school hits a million miles.” That astronomical feat is a challenge sure to be met by the Rancho community with enthusiasm, tenacity, and joy, one lap at a time.

Images Via LVJUSD