By DARRELL L. BREESE
Alaska Star

During the formative years of his youth, Paul Staso spent much of his time running on the wilderness trails near his Eagle River home and being chased by moose. Overtime he developed a love of running that he hopes will help him during his planned trek across the state from the Mendenhal Glacier in Juneau to the Arctic Circle.

Paul Staso plans to complete a running trek across Alaska this spring. A former Eagle River resident, Staso's PACE 2009 Alaska Trek is part of an online educational and healt program geared to encourage fitness among children. Photo Courtesy of Paul Staso

P.A.C.E. Trek 2009 is Staso’s way of trying to make an impact on the childhood obesity issue and the continuing decline of youth health and fitness.

While he’ll run solo, he won’t be alone. During the planned 22-day, 500-mile journey across the state, Staso will use the Internet to share his experience with an international audience.

“I virtually travel with teams of children and adults from around the world as they access my Web sites, and learn about the locations we’re trekking through via my writings, pictures and media files,” he said. “The journey through Alaska will require me to average 30 miles per day as I encounter some rugged and breathtaking terrain.”

This is not the first time Staso has taken students on a cross country trek, in the past he’s done a solo run across the Lower 48 and completed a 602-mile solo journey across Montana.

What motivates him to tackle such epic adventures?

Staso created the unique partnership via the Internet back in 2005 after a conversation with his wife, who is a P.E. teacher at Russell Elementary (in Missoula, Mont.), and then 10-year-old daughter Ashlin.

“Ashlin wanted to do something to help get the children in her class more active and fit, so we created a virtual run/walk across America curriculum - from the Oregon coast to the Delaware coast.” he said

As part of the curriculum Staso promised the fourth and fifth grade students at Russell Elementary that he would run from Haystack Rock in Oregon to Cape Henlopen in Delaware if they would walk or run the same distance during the school year. The students were up to the challenge and each of the 56 fourth grade students covered an average of 1.5 miles a week, while the 46 fifth grade students averaged 2 miles a week.

Keeping his word, Staso developed a Web site for the kids follow his journey across the country. Other schools within the district and the state of Montana learned of the challenge and began adopting the curriculum and following along. The program quickly spread around the nation and world.

Last spring Staso trekked across Montana through rain, wind, heat and snow. He averaged 31 miles of running per day for 20 days during the east-to-west journey. Online there were 108 teams of children - 8,000 plus runners and walkers globally - following along with him and cumulatively those teams logged more than 42,000 miles during the trek. This year he is expanding the program to include adults.

“We had teams of school children from Germany to Georgia, Malaysia to Maine, Australia to Alaska, Italy to Iowa... and so many places in between last year,” he said. “I’m very excited to also offer an opportunity to parents and non-parents to get involved through stepthere.com.”

During his trek across Alaska, Staso, plans to make time available to local schools to introduce them to the program and promote fitness. He will be running through the Chugiak-Eagle River area April 29 and 30.

The Alaska journey will last from April 20 to May 12.

To follow Staso or to learn more about the curriculum visit the P.A.C.E. Trek 2009 Web page at www.pacetrek.com.

Reach the reporter at darrell.breese@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, January 15, 2009.