KidsRunning.Com: We hear that you were a reader for Read Across America, in an elementary school in Colorado. We'd love to know the names of the books that you read.

Matt: The book I read to the whole school was Dr. Desoto. It was a story of a mouse who is a dentist and had to work on a fox that wanted to eat him.

I like the book because the little guy outsmarts the big guy:-)
I also read Rodney Rodent to a couple of smaller classes. Rodney could not pronounce his R's so the other rodents made fun of him because he said things like 'Wodney Wodent'.

In the end this saved the school from an evil rodent and Rodney became a hero!

KidsRunning.Com: Please let us know why you took the time off from your busy training schedule to visit this school as a reader.

Matt: Reading is important because through reading we can learn anything we want. Reading can also take you places you can never really go, like far away planets, or inside of cells, or anywhere you can imagine.

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KidsRunning.Com: Did this community service project have any connection to your running?

Matt: The link with running for me is that running captures the kids' imaginations and they seem to be able to relate to me. For kids, running is fun.

Mrs. Goodrow's Class in Connecticut Celebrates Read Across America.
We all wore 'yellow' for Our Many Colored Days, a Dr. Seuss classic

Thanks to Greg Fiore for sharing his photos from RAC Day. Greg had this to say about the experience, "We have 139 students in grades K - 5. I teach a 4/5 class. Matt read both to the whole school and also in my classroom. The kids just loved him because he was fun and animated. We talked about his running and about positive goal setting!"

Please email carol.kids@rodale.com with comments on this article and visit Skyrunning Matt's Web site (above) or see what he is up to with his race at Barr Trail Mountain Race.
Want to know more about this guy? Read our fall KidsRunning.Com interview with the mountain runner called Touch the Sky.