YOUTH DEVELOPMENT:

Runner's family sees ripple effect from We Run This City Youth Marathon Program

Marathon check-up

Thirteen-year-old Terrell Ivory and his family have embarked on a healthier lifestyle since Terrell became affiliated with the We Run This City Youth Marathon Program and its bike club.

Terrell joined the bike club out of curiosity even though he says he wasn’t really into riding. He persevered, though, and started to see results.

That led to participation in the Y's Learn-to-Swim Club. With guidance and encouragement from We Run This City staff, Terrell began seeing improvements in his weight loss, energy levels and confidence.

He began asking staff members what else he could do to keep his weight loss going, and staff pointed him to the We Run This City Youth Marathon Program, a hugely successful program that trains Cleveland school students to run in the Rite Aid Marathon.

Created in collaboration with the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Case Western Reserve University, and the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, the program was designed to increase opportunities for physical activity and help students from Cleveland schools to set and achieve goals, improve self-confidence and body image, and translate their efforts into other areas of their lives.

The program runs for 14 weeks over the final two quarters of the school year, with students actively training to participate in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon in the 1.2 mile run, 10K race (6.2 miles) or a half-marathon (13.1 miles).

Launched in 2006, the program has grown exponentially. Starting with 81 participants in the inaugural campaign, it grew to 583 runners from 25 Cleveland middle schools and two high schools by 2010.

Terrell began working out with the We Run This City staff at the Downtown Y branch in 2011, and at the staff’s urging began to look at his diet.

Armed with healthy recipes and ideas for healthy snacking, Terrell’s entire family got into the act and began focusing on healthier eating, highlighted by Terrell’s mother cooking meals from healthy recipes.

The results for Terrell and his whole family were impressive. Terrell dropped 20 pounds, his mother began working out and walking with him through the Clevelanders in Motion program, and his brother is also training to run a 10K race.

Terrell says the We Run This City is more than just a running club and more than just an after-school activity where kids train for a race. It’s a program that helped put him and his family on the road to health.