Engaging Young People in Running Clubs: Best Practices from Marathon Kids’ Volunteer Coaches

Abstract

Introduction: Current deficiencies in children’s leisure-time physical activity in the United States and globally underscore a pressing and ongoing need to enhance child ecosystems that include school and out-of-school time settings with physical activity supports and opportunities. Marathon Kids (MK) is an international nonprofit organization that promotes children’s physical activity via school and community-based running clubs and programs. Building from the importance of indigenous knowledge and colearning with stakeholders within real-world settings for children’s physical activity promotion, we explore best practices for the implementation of children’s running clubs based on a national sample of U.S. adult volunteer MK coaches. As a secondary aim, we describe selected implementation characteristics of MK running clubs as relates to when clubs are implemented and average weekly minutes scheduled for running clubs. Methods: This study was guided primarily by a phenomenological approach to qualitative research. Data were collected in 2019 from MK coaches via an online survey that included open and closed-ended items on MK delivery and best practices. Qualitative analyses were based on thematic analysis; quantitative analyses were based primarily on descriptive statistics. Results: MK coaches (n = 478 out of 676 coaches; 70.7% response) from across the United States (n = 35 states) participated. Eight primary themes encapsulated the best practice recommendations: running club leadership and support network; general organization and planning; student recruitment; running club implementation; tracking/logging miles; social support; communication and public promotion of running clubs; and guiding principles for running clubs. MK coaches reported an average of 112 weekly minutes scheduled for running/walking. Conclusions: MK coach best practice recommendations hold promise to enhance and further disseminate the establishment of volunteer-led running clubs for young people.