Diego Estrada,<\/strong> who ran for Mexico in the 2012 London Olympics.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s great for the kids to see someone like Diego who competed at the Olympics and is a bilingual athlete himself,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cWhen the kids see him and hear him speak Spanish, their faces light up. They think, \u2018Hey if he can do that, I can too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The love of running and quality programming is what led Aaron Secakuku, NAU \u201998, to sign up his 10-year-old daughter Johana for the program. \u201cRunning is part of my family\u2019s Navajo and Hopi culture. It\u2019s also a great opportunity for the kids to meet university athletes and to be exposed to instruction of this caliber and the work ethic that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, 35 eager students laced up their shoes and tackled speed intervals, the focus of the day. Back at school, students continue training with Rose Marron, Puente\u2019s physical education teacher, and keep track of activity with daily logs.<\/p>\n
Secakuku has seen a difference in Johana since the first session. \u201cWhen we got home the other day she put on her running clothes and asked to run. Even though it was near sundown I said yes and watched her as she went through the neighborhood and logged her miles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Duncan grins at stories retold by parents and is enthused by the response from kids and parents alike. He hopes to expand the program into a year-round activity and to continue to support health and wellness in the community.<\/p>\n
Train Like an Olympian caps off with Puente de Hozho\u2019s annual Jog-a-thon on April 12 during which students run or walk for 30 consecutive minutes to help raise money for their school.<\/p>\n
Practice sessions continue at 4 p.m. March 27, April 4 and April 20 inside the Skydome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flagstaff has long been a favorite destination for world-class athletes seeking a site for high-altitude training. These professionals may soon have hometown competitors thanks to Northern Arizona University Track and Field, which is inspiring local students to \u201cTrain Like an Olympian.\u201d In partnership with Puente de Hozho Elementary School, NAU Track and Field is in…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":14991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[208,212,211,210],"class_list":["post-14986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-community","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-running","tag-youth-programs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}