Clyde School pupils have been making the most of their lunch breaks to get fit prior to the cross country.

More than 50 children have been regularly turning up for the schools very own ‘Run Club’ under the tutelage of trail runner Tom Heath.

With the support of teacher Kate Goodfellow the six sessions (on a Tuesday and Thursday for three weeks) have been a “massive success” Tom said.

The Run Club crew pose for a group shot. PHOTO: Supplied

“We structured the sessions to include warm-ups, a few drills, and games to keep the kids active and engaged. 

“I’ve really enjoyed making the sessions fun, while balancing physical effort and teaching skills that will benefit their running and help them in all kinds of sports.”

Tom said from the first session the children were really engaged and the initiative took off from there.

“By the end of it we were making the kids run pretty hard and they were loving it.

“We saw them grow in confidence, fitness and it was a whole lot of fun.”

The Clyde Sports Ground was the venue for games, sprints and fitness for the 30 minute sessions. PHOTO: Supplied

The icing on the top was a free ice cream sundae voucher awarded to all the children who took part in two run club sessions. 

“Making running fun is one thing, but we needed something more to motivate and help keep them interested.

“I’d like to thank Paulina’s for coming on board and giving out 60 ice cream sundaes.”

Tom said he had plenty more ideas to build on for the future and hoped to run another run club before next year's cross country.

Clyde School teacher Kate Goodfellow said together with Tom another school dad Craig Strain helped out and the kids of all ages loved racing the adults.

"The students had a blast! Tom put a lot of time into the set up of really fun and engaging ways to get kids running with things like giant games of ball rush and rob the nest being a crowd favourite.

"There were no boring laps around the block done. All of the kids were doing a lot of running in a fun way. We had a lot kids who would not usually want to run come along and have a go which was great to see."

Fun and cheering for your mates was a big part of Clyde School run club. PHOTO: Supplied

Good luck to all the Clyde School pupils who are running their school cross country today (Monday June 9). 

The fastest pupils from Dunstan Zone schools will race the Dunstan Zone cross country at McArthur Ridge Vineyard on June 16, and there they can qualify for the Central Otago Zone Cross Country which is to be held at the Cromwell Racecourse on June 26. 

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