Welcome to Marathonkids 2020

Welcome to Marathonkids Ireland 2020 programme! It’s great to have you on board. As you know, Marathonkids Ireland 2020 will start on the week starting 5th October 2020. The recommended timeline to complete the program is 8 weeks.

Each Student will record daily updates in their physical or digital workbooks. The Topics tie in to the SPHE module of the student’s curriculum.

Each Week the interactive workbook will allow students to cover different topics relating to the benefits of Sport:

• Week 1: Healthy Heart
• Week 2: Physical Benefits of Exercise
• Week 3: Mental Benefits of Exercise
• Week 4: Social Benefits of Exercise
• Week 5: Community Benefits of Exercise
• Week 6: The Role of Hydration
• Week 7: The Role of Nutrition
• Week 8: The Education Benefits of Exercise

Each topic is broken up into 4 lessons and designed to be cover over 4 days in conjunction with daily run. Students will run/jog/walk an assigned distance each week. This is designed to be completed daily over 4 days, but each school will have the option to design this to suit their facilities.

Recommended Distance each week:

• Week 1: 2400m
• Week 2: 3200m
• Week 3: 4000m
• Week 4: 4800m
• Week 5: 5600m
• Week 6: 6400m
• Week 7: 6800m
• Week 8: 8000m

Participating schools can design the Final Mile celebration in house, based on current government health and safety guidelines Teachers will receive weekly emails and updates on the marathonkidsireland.ie website. The content will include hints and tips, Video content including exercise warm ups, nutrition and recipes from Irish international track and field athlete David Gillick. All this content is available to share with the participating students.

Programme changes 

• All interaction with participating schools will be digital. Loads more digital content available
• No Physical visits to the schools
• No mass participation Final mile event. Schools can organize and design independent events based on your school’s current environment and facilities

But there are no better words to introduce the program than those from our ambassador and former Olympian and 400m European Champion David Gillick:

During the course of our 8-week programme you will receive one newsletter per week every Friday starting on October 2nd. In the newsletter you will find:

• Weekly video by David introducing the theme of the week
• Weekly warm-up exercise by David
• News with photos and videos directly from schools participating

But without further ado let’s start with Week 1 where you will learn How to Keep Your Heart Healthy

In the Teachers Section you will also find some suggested warm-up exercises (one per week). This is the one for Week 1

Last but not least, we will be posting some amazing and content on our website (make sure to bookmark it on your browser) and on our social media so don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

OK, now it’s time to go and start exercising! Have an amazing week!

The Marathonkids Ireland team