We Run This City Youth Marathon Program (WRTC)

The We Run This City Youth Marathon Program (WRTC) is a collaboration between the YMCA of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, the Cleveland Department of Public Health and Case Western Reserve University Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods.

The 14-week program strives to teach young people to set and achieve goals by preparing them to run in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.

But crossing the finish line is just the beginning! Students leave the program with greater self-confidence and increased levels of fitness and endurance.

STRUCTURE
WRTC is a 12 to 16 week program. Individual teams are formed at schools and are led by teachers or volunteer coaches and assisted by YMCA coaches. The teachers/ coaches are responsible for scheduling practices, submitting all paperwork and ensuring that their teams attend pre-race
events (kickoff, conditioning clinic and practice races – 10k teams only). WRTC offers the students a training schedule (which includes a nutrition component) that allows them to cover the distances necessary to be prepared to run in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. A WRTC student does not have to be an athlete to participate in this program. Our goal for each
student is completion rather than competition.

There are three options for training:

1. The marathon, where the students accumulate 25 miles of conditioning over 12 weeks and complete their last
1.2 miles on race day.

2. The 10k, where participants safely build up to running or
walking 6.2 miles.

3. The half marathon, where participants safely train to run
13.1 miles on race day.

We Run This City Partners: