Taichung City Elementary School Road Run, 4,000 People Run Toward Success

(Taiwan Business News) The "2014 Run for Success" Taichung City Elementary School Road Run Competition kicked off yesterday (the 29th) in the morning. Nearly 4,000 teachers and students from 136 elementary schools across the city gathered at Chenggongling. Under the starting gun fired by Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun, they energetically set off, starting from Jieshou Terrace and looping around the interior of the camp for one lap, with a total length of about 2 km, running together from Chenggongling toward the road to success.

To promote the Ministry of Education's "150 Minutes of School Exercise Per Week Program," the city government's Education Bureau cooperated with the Taichung City Elementary School Sports Promotion Association to hold 13 sports league competitions. Yesterday morning, the road run competition was held at Chenggongling, with each school selecting the class with the best results to represent the school in competing for first place.

At 9:30 a.m., Deputy Mayor Tsai fired the starting gun, and 4,000 teachers and students set off from Jieshou Terrace at Chenggongling, creating a lively and spectacular scene. Yu, a sixth-grade student in Class E of Dajia Elementary School, said happily that participating in the road run at Chenggongling was "really cool and a lot of fun!"

In his speech, Deputy Mayor Tsai said that Chenggongling is the most famous military base in the country and also a shared memory for many men. He had attended college training and served in the military here, and returning to this old place today felt especially warm. He also thanked the Army's 10th Corps for its great assistance in allowing the children to participate in the road run here, "running together from Chenggongling toward the road to success!"

Deputy Mayor Tsai said that in order to encourage balanced sports development for both boys and girls, it was specially stipulated that each group must have a certain proportion of female students. In addition, if principals and directors participated in the road run together, they could earn extra points for their school. It was hoped that this would cultivate a culture of teachers and children running together, implement 150 minutes of school exercise per week and 30 minutes of exercise per day, and make Taichung City a healthy, athletic and happy city.

The Vitalon Foundation specially sponsored 150 boxes of sports drinks this time, and the Education Bureau also provided 500 boxes of drinks. As long as students completed the full course, they could receive one can of a drink. If directors and principals accompanied them for the entire run, each person would receive two additional cans. A total of 56 school principals and more than 560 teachers participated together.