BAM Runathon 2014

This week Ava's school, Berkeley Arts Magnet (or BAM for short) has been holding a runathon to raise money.

Each class in the school has been taking part in the runathon during their regular PE class. Ava's class (including their teacher) took part in the runathon yesterday. Earlier in the day Ava class had been on a walking field trip at nearby UC Berkeley. I had worried that they'd all be a little tired from the field trip but they were all pretty excited about the runathon and everyone put in a great effort.   

If you're not familiar with how a runathon works, it's pretty easy. The kids collect sponsors who either pledge a certain dollar amount per lap or a flat amount. With many sponsors pledging a per-lap amount, it's in the kids' best interest to try and run as many laps as possible. And that's just what they all did.

It was a pretty warm day yesterday (or at least warm by Bay Area standards!) so to keep the kids cool as they ran parents were stationed around the track with water squirters. The kids were all pretty keen to get misted with water as they ran past.

The runathon lasted for a total of 15 minutes. To keep track of how many laps they had run, the kids were handed a rubber bracelet each time they passed the starting line. 

At the end of the 15 minutes the bracelets were counted and each child was given a certificate with their number of laps on it.

Each of the kids set themselves a target number of laps that they hoped to run. Last year Ava ran 10 laps in the runathon and she was keen to do even better this year so she set her target at 11 laps. This year Ava ran 14 laps so she was pretty happy that she not only reached her target but beat it.
There was a lot of discussion amongst the kids about what their goal had been and how much they had beaten it by. 

There was lots of delicious watermelon and orange on hand for the kids after the runathon. The orange pieces pretty quickly became a source of entertainment!

The kids had such a fun time taking part in the runathon and they were all so proud of their results. They all did such a great job.
 

Thanks to everyone who sponsored Ava in the runathon!