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Irish schoolboy runs a mile a day for 100 days

An Irish schoolboy has run a mile a day for 100 days – and he hasn’t yet broken his streak.

Ten-year-old Atticus Barrett, from Co Galway, Ireland, recently completed 100 days of running, raising €300 for the charity Laura Lynn in the process.

Atticus’ mother Denise said she had encouraged her three children to keep up exercise habits during the Covid-19 pandemic.

'I was aware of the research about kids and the impact on confidence and attention from the daily 15 [minutes of exercise],' she says. 'We said, "Wouldn’t it be cool if you did a mile every day and see how long you could go with the running streak?"'

While her eldest son, Harry, became disheartened when he broke his streak, Atticus kept going.

'Once he’d started building the streak, for him it was like, "well I can’t miss now,"' she says. 'There were days when he’d be crying saying, "I don’t want to break the streak but I’m too tired to go out!" And he’d just pick himself up and go out.'

Whereas other beginner runners might have given up sooner, Atticus kept through the month of January, then February, then on further. Soon the new target became the 100-day mark, which they knew would be the birthday of Atticus’ cousin who sadly passed away in an accident last year.

The Barretts are certainly an active family; Denise says running became 'a big way of how I define myself' after she had children. 'I only came into running when I was 40, and I’ve run eight or nine marathons since then,' she says.

But for Atticus, who has ADHD, the regular running made a real difference to his well being, she says:

'I was really conscious that any exercise is good for them, especially if you’ve got kids with additional needs like he does. It really helps his concentration. You can see it in his mood – he’ll go out in a very low mood and he’ll always come back saying, ‘I’m really glad I did it,’ which is brilliant. That’s the gift you want to give to kids.'

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