35 Fingal schools and over 3,500 5th & 6th class students will complete 26.2 miles over 8 weeks, training 4 times a week in school.

This is the 6th year of this programme, which sees over 10,000 students from across Dublin complete the programme

Last Wednesday Aisling Moloney, RTE news2day and David Gillick MarathonKids Ambassador, visited Powerstown Educate Together National School in Tyrrelstown to see how the 5th and 6th class students were getting on with their marathon journey.

The MarathonKids Ireland Programme is designed to encourage children to embrace healthy, active lifestyles. Niall Mc Guirk (Fingal County Council) and Neil Kennedy (MarathonKids Ireland) developed the programme, which took place for the first time in 2015 and saw 800 students take part.

The programme, the only one of its kind in the country, is in over 150 Dublin primary schools and sees students accumulate a distance of 26.2 miles over an 8 week period. The programme sees each student taking part receive a workbook to use in class. The idea of the workbook is to inform students about the marathon, learn about the benefits of sport and record their training on a daily basis. Teachers have been very impressed with the MarathonKids Ireland Workbook and its contribution to the classroom. Ailish McKenna, a teacher in Powerstown ETNS, ‘This is our third year running the Marathon Kids Programme in Powerstown. We feel it’s great motivation for the children to stay active, especially this year during the pandemic. The booklet reinforces the physical and mental benefits of being active with information on the role of nutrition and hydration. It is a fantastic programme that the children look forward to every year.’

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For further information on the MarathonKids Ireland Programme contact:

Noel McManus noel.mcmanus@fcrs.ie 0879830443