FITNESS AUTHOR
Emily Effren
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtesy of Marathon Kids
RUNNING WITH MARATHON KIDS n How Marathon Kids is continuing to inspire others to live a healthy and active lifestyle — even in the virtual world.
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t’s safe to say that, with the circumstances of the pandemic, many people have become more sedentary. With more time spent at home, it’s easy to skip a run or a workout and opt for a couple more episodes instead of hitting one’s daily step
goal. “We are really in a nationwide inactivity crisis — and we were there before COVID,” Cami Hawkins, CEO of Marathon Kids says. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one out of every three children are active everyday, and only one in three adults achieve the recommended amount of physical activity a week. “Marathon Kids is really founded on adults rolemodeling for kids, so we want to show that we not only talk the talk, but we also walk the walk,” Hawkins says. For children aged six through 17, the recommended amount of physical activity is at least 60 minutes a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “That doesn’t mean 60 minutes in one setting. That means 60 minutes throughout the day,” Hawkins says. However, even before the pandemic, Marathon Kids had an application in the works that would promote physical activity and allow for virtual connectivity
OCTOBER 2020
through a cloud-based platform, called Marathon Kids Connect. “We were already kind of prepared to meet this challenge, and then, because of where we were, we were able to add a few features so that now we can reach these kids, regardless of the environment that they’re going to be in this school year, so it doesn’t matter whether they’re on campus, at home or something in between,” Hawkins says. With the struggles that flow in the pandemic’s wake, such as families having to adjust to online school, Marathon Kids decided to host their We Run the World virtual race throughout the month of September to motivate and encourage people to get active. To celebrate the nonprofit’s 25-year anniversary,
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