Lakeside students join P.A.C.E. Trek

This Tuesday, sixth-grade students at Somers Middle School completed a four-week-long team effort to match endurance runner Paul Staso of Missoula mile-for-mile on his 500-mile run from Juneau, Alaska to the Arctic Circle.

The good news is that they didn't have to don winter garb or even leave Montana. In fact, the team logged a combined 520 miles while participating in P.A.C.E. Trek 2009 during P.E. classes in Somers.

P.A.C.E. stands for Promoting Active Children Everywhere, a program started by Staso in May of 2008 to encourage young people to develop lifelong habits of remaining fit and healthy through an active lifestyle. In so doing, Staso hopes to discourage childhood obesity, a national trend that often follows young people throughout adulthood.

"Kids need to see that if you take care of your body it can take you on some wonderful adventures - far more satisfying than staring at a television or computer for hours on end," Staso says. "By the reactions I receive from children, I know that my message and endurance journeys intrigue and inspire many."

The Somers P.A.C.E. Trek team is just one of more than 230 teams from 10 different countries - including Australia, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal and South Korea - who are participating in this year's trek. A total of 65 Somers students took part in this year's trek, joining 2,700 other children from Montana and more than 22,000 students worldwide.

The 2009 Alaska Trek is the second P.A.C.E. Trek in as many years, but the first one that Somers has taken part in. The first trek took place in May of 2008, as Staso launched out across the state of Montana, doing a 620- mile solo run on which 108 global P.A.C.E. teams joined him from their school's track or local trail, logging more than 42,000 combined miles.

Prior to establishing P.A.C.E. Trek, Staso became the sixth person in history to run solo from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean across the most northerly route ever attempted-a 3,260 mile trek through 15 states from Oregon to Deleware, crossing both the Rockies and the Appalachian Mountains, which he completed in 108 days on October 20, 2006.

That run arose from a promise Staso made to his wife's fourth and fifth grade P.E. students- 97 children enrolled at Russell Elementary School in Missoula - and served as the catalyst for what was to become P.A.C.E. Trek.

"That promise, which was made as a motivation technique, was that I would actually attempt to run 3,260 miles across the United States if either class could virtually do it first during the 2005-2006 school year," Staso said. "My research had shown that an individual elementary class had not yet succeeded at completing a documented coast-to-coast crossing within one 9-month school year, without using conversions such as adding steps with pedometers or some other method. That was the challenge I presented to them, and they ran with it.

Since then, Staso, a former 5th grade teacher, has created a unique Web site, www.pacetrek.com, where teachers and students from kindergarten can form teams and become actively involved in the trek.

When Somers trustee Dave Alexander, one of Staso's college buddies from the University of Montana, found out about P.A.C.E. Trek, he encouraged Somers P.E. teacher Jamie Schuster to sign up and do the run with her kids. That she did, and Schuster began running a mile or more with her sixth grade students two times a week.

"They're liking it a lot, because they're starting to run so much now that they think, 'Hey this is easy,' Schuster said. "Some of the kids come up to me and ask, 'Do we get to go running today?' Even the kids you don't expect. They seem to enjoy getting out and getting that fresh air, and I was able to see their confidence improve after just a couple of weeks."

Staso began running when he was 10 years old, passing moose and other wildlife on the trails near his childhood home in Alaska.

However, after coming within 100 miles of the Arctic Circle, the weather and road conditions forced him to turn back without reaching the Arctic Circle as planned. With five days to complete the remaining 137 miles of the trek, Staso decided to change his route in order to run the 500 miles through Alaska in 18 days. The new route took him along Highway 2, from North Pole, Alaska to Delta, Alaska, where the trek concluded.

Staso noted in his daily updates that comments from students in schools like Somers kept him going through some harsh conditions and difficult terrain.

"I want to thank everyone who is taking two minutes out of their day to either sign my guestbook, send me a personal e-mail, or taking time to send me some pictures of their students in action running and walking," Staso posted last Friday. "Those things mean more to me than I can ever express. There are certainly times when I'm all alone and wonder if my steps and effort are really making any difference. Then, as I sit with my feet in ice at the end of the day I read nice thoughts from teachers and students about how P.A.C.E. Trek does make a difference. Those moments truly fuel my spirit and get me back on the road each morning."