IN THE CLASSROOM:Kids improve their speed -- and health -- in running club

About a month ago, Julie Smith started a running club at College Park Elementary School in Costa Mesa. As a third-grade teacher, she knew about the nationwide reports citing high levels of childhood obesity and diabetes, and she figured that a little weekly exercise might stave off the doctor.

As it turned out, Smith didn’t have to push students very much.

By the time the program entered its third week last week, nearly all of the second- and third-graders at College Park had run at least once — and Smith, who stood at the starting line and handed out a ticket for each completed lap, could barely deal fast enough.

“They just get off the bench and run,” she said, watching several dozen students race around the playground after lunch. “So far, it’s not too detrimental to their digestive system.”

College Park’s running club, funded by the PTA and launched at an assembly last month, invites all students in the two upper grades to run quarter-mile laps and compete for prizes.

As the year progresses, Smith plans to award T-shirts, water bottles and other prizes for the students who garner the most tickets. By June, she hopes to have medals available for the top runners.

On Dec. 5, students hustled to the playground after lunch and ran in their regular school clothes — some even in black dress shoes. Not everyone managed to run all the way, but Smith offered tickets even to the ones who walked to the finish. A few, after charging for minutes on end, flopped down on the grass after the bell rang.

Third-grader Blaise Judkins, 8, had totaled three and a half miles by the end of the third week. He wanted the exercise, he said, to play basketball, baseball, soccer and other sports.

Classmate Bryan Guadarrama, 8, was inspired to join the club by his older brother, Edgar, a wrestler at Newport Harbor High School.

Jessica Capristo, 8, said she warmed up for her weekly run by walking on treadmills at home with her mother.

Kimberly Diaz, 8, hoped to get good enough to run in her first marathon.

Other students, in addition to wanting to get in shape, confessed to being keen on the prizes.

“I just want everything,” said Hugo Duarte, 8.