Dear Mr. Burfoot,
Today is September 15. In honor of the beginning of the Olympics, we paraded in the gym with our little American flags. It was fun. We had to pretend that we were proud athletes. We marched one lap, walked one lap, and ran a lap with our flags.

Later we put our flags down and did some running. One of the things we did was run around slowly in a line. Our teacher paced us so that we would do a slow jog. The best part was that we got to take turns sprinting from the back of the line to the front. When we got to the front we had to hold Mrs. Goodrow's hand and help her pace the group. Then the next person got to run.

It was really fun. We loved the sprinting part because we love running fast.

Our teacher told us that doing drills like this can make you a fast runner. She said that our American runners in the Olympics often train like this. We would probably just try to run fast all the time if we could. Do you think running slowly and then running fast sprints can make you a faster runner? Do you think the Olympians do things like this when they train?

P.S. We would like to publish your reply on kidsrunning.com

Dear Class,
Yes, long distance runners spend most of their time running slow. They run fast and do sprints only about 15 percent of the time.

Running slow is the best way to build a healthy heart and to maintain a healthy body weight.

Sincerely,
Amby Burfoot

"March"