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

Marathonkids has been a huge success over the last 5 years. We have had over 20,000 students, 150 schools and 350 classes complete the program since we launched in 2015.

The last 6 months have been particularly hard and confusing for children and with that in mind and as we know how important physical and mental health and wellbeing is at the moment, we feel it is important to give students something to focus on and look forward to over the coming months.

We really wish to continue the Marathonkids success and give students, schools, and teachers the option to participate in the Marathonkids program in 2020.

Based on the current environment we have made some program changes to help schools facilitate a safe and fun program.

Program changes 

• All interaction with participating schools will be digital. Loads more digital content available
• No Physical visits to the schools 
• The option to have a Digital program Booklets to replace physical booklet
• The option to for a Digital certificate of completion or finisher medal
• Participation T-shirt is optional 
• No mass participation Final mile event. Schools can organize and design independent events based on your school’s current environment and facilities

Marathonkids 2020 Program Information

Marathonkids 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.

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.

The Topics tie in to the SPHE module of the student’s curriculum.

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:

• 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.

For more information and to register your school for the 2020 program please complete the form on marathonkidsireland.ie homepage.

We are really looking forward to working with you again this year.  We wish you good health and happiness into the future and thank you for all your support to date.

So far we’ve learned that running and exercising is good for both body (Week 2), mind (Week 3) and socially (Week 4) and that there are also a lot of Community Benefits in Exercising (Week 5). Week 6 saw David talk about the Importance of Hydration. This week will be about Nutrition.

CLICK TO GO TO THE TEACHERS SECTION

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

In the Teachers Section you will also find the a nice and easy warm up exercise (one per week). This is the one for Week 7:

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

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.

You can contribute to the weekly content too by sharing your photos and videos on social media and tagging @marathonkidsireland (Facebook and Instagram) or @marathonkidsire (Twitter). This is just a selection of the great content you have already started generating.

Keep up with the great work and roll on Week 7!

The Marathonkids Ireland team

Our ambassador David Gillick answered to this and a lot more questions directly from you when he visited Scoil Santain and St Kevin’s Boys NS in South Dublin this week. We have some nice little videos and some cool pictures, which we will post on our social media and website.

So far we’ve learned that running and exercising is good for both body (Week 2), mind (Week 3) and socially (Week 4) and that there are also a lot of Community Benefits in Exercising (Week 5). This week David will talk about the Importance of Hydration.

CLICK TO GO TO THE TEACHERS SECTION (password: marathonkids2019)

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

In the Teachers Section you will also find the a nice and easy warm up exercise (one per week). This is the one for Week 6

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

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.

You can contribute to the weekly content too by sharing your photos and videos on social media and tagging @marathonkidsireland (Facebook and Instagram) or @marathonkidsire (Twitter).

Keep up with the great work and roll on Week 6!

The Marathonkids Ireland team

This is the message for Week 5 and our ambassador David Gillick has been sharing it with schools from Fingal, Dublin City and South Dublin. We have already shared some nice little videos and some cool pictures, which you can also find on our social media and website.

We’ve learned that running and exercising is good for both body (Week 2), mind (Week 3) and socially (Week 4) but there are also a lot of Community Benefits in Exercising!

CLICK TO GO TO THE TEACHERS SECTION

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

In the Teachers Section you will also find the a nice and easy warm up exercise (one per week). This is the one for Week 5

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

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.

You can contribute to the weekly content too by sharing your photos and videos on social media and tagging @marathonkidsireland (Facebook and Instagram) or @marathonkidsire (Twitter).

Keep up with the great work and roll on Week 5!

The Marathonkids Ireland team

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO FROM SCOIL MOBHI

and this is the video taken at St. Brigid’s GNS.

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO FROM ST BRIGID’S GNS

In Week 3 he visited Swords ETNS…

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO FROM SWORDS ETNS

and this is the video from Thornleigh ETNS.

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO FROM THORNLEIGH ETNS

We’ve learned that running and exercising is good for both body (Week 2) and mind (Week 3) but there are also a lot of Social Benefits in Exercising!

CLICK TO GO TO THE TEACHERS SECTION

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

In the Teachers Section you will also find the a nice and easy warm up exercise (one per week). This is the one for Week 4:

CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO

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.

You can contribute to the weekly content too by sharing your photos and videos on social media and tagging @marathonkidsireland (Facebook and Instagram) or @marathonkidsire (Twitter). These is just a selection of the great content you have already started generating.

Keep up with the great work and roll on Week 4!

The Marathonkids Ireland team

PS In the previous newsletter by mistake we mentioned Holywell ETNS while the actual school being visited was Swords ETNS

And of course the kids, the real protagonists of the event who were very excited about joining the programme…

As well as talking and asking questions to their sports hero Paul Flynn

The day started around 12:30 pm in St Colmcille’s School in Swords. Neil Kennedy together with the Fingal County Council Media and Communication team and Senior Sports Development Officer were setting up the stage for the event with banners and an inflatable structure outside of the school.

Before the presentation with the kids, a round of interview took place starting with Mayor of Fingal Mary McCamley for whom Marathonkids Ireland is a ‘great programme with over two and a half thousand kids involved’:

It was then the time to speak for Chief Executive Paul Reid who said ‘Fingal County Council are thrilled to support Marathonkids Ireland. We have the youngest and fastest-growing population in the country and it’s important for us to invest in initiatives [such as Marathonkids Ireland] that support children.

Last interview was for Marathonkids Ireland Ambassador and Dublin player Paul Flynn who said ‘I am supporting Marathonkids Ireland because it’s a great programme that gives all kids the opportunity to participate and get involved in sports. As a sportsman I know how important this is’.

After the round of interviews, which were held in front of the school, the scene moved to the backyard and the kids took over. After being given a few instructions by the crew, they showed their excitement about the programme by shouting ‘Up the Dubs’ when prompted

It all went well and everybody was extremely enthusiastic about the programme. Marathonkids Ireland Director Neil Kennedy spoke about the programme as a way to ‘raise awareness about child obesity and inspire kids to exercise and eat healthy’.

For more videos from the event, check out and follow Marathonkids Ireland Youtube channel.