PASTA AND MARATHONS GO TOGETHER Wellness Bulletin Boards Running a marathon, especially running a kids' marathon should involve a lot of hoopla and celebration, but what if you don't have a big budget? KidsRunning.Com believes that you can still have a program that kids will remember for a lifetime. Here's our suggestion. Have a school lunch program sponsored Kids' Pasta Marathon. HOW TO It's easy as a bowl of macaroni. Just kick off the kids' marathon with a pasta lunch (very healthy of course). Serve pasta salad with lots of little bits of jewel-colored bell pepper gems and some olive oil (just the tiniest bit of mayonnaise if any). Serve whole-wheat pasta. Make it a pasta fest. Let kids choose pasta with Marinara sauce for choice of hot or cold entree. Then hand out footprint or better yet, little bow-tie or butterfly pasta charts for kids to fill in when running their marathon. Have a key. Each bow-tie equals 1 mile. Color in a half for half-mile distance. Reward? Kids make 26-piece pasta necklaces on completion of kids' marathon. BULLETIN BOARD AND HAPPY FEET TIE-IN Display a bulletin board announcing menu for kick off, kids' marathon program, pasta charts and some samples of pasta necklaces. Post a classroom a math tie in asking classes to find which kind of pasta most approximates a "26-piece" 1 person serving. Make sure to put nutritional benefits of pasta entrees on board. Optional: Use page 44 (Pasta/Marathon page) from the Happy Feet book. Post any section of the page: Marathon Dream, Fun Feet, Pack a Snack, or Good stuff. LINKS: Back-to-School Fruit Cup Check back for "Beans Bulletin Board" WELLNESS BOOKS Happy Feet, Healthy Food, Your Child's First Journal of Exercise and Healthy Eating Information book and journal - 112 pages The Treasure of Health and Happiness Children's chapter book - 96 pages. Printable Order Forms Carol Goodrow, Breakaway Books E-mail the editor at KidsRunning.Com with comments on this article. rwedit@rodale.com