Three middle schools in Groton realized there was a weakness in their fitness testing, especially with the mile run, so they decided to start a program, "Run Across America." Now all sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade physical education students have the chance to do just that, run across America.

West Side, Fitch, and Cutler middle schools are competing to see who can first reach Disneyland in Anaheim, Cali., a distance of 2,938 miles altogether. The program will run until fitness scores are posted in May.

At West Side Middle School, it works like this: at the beginning of every gym class, all students run as much as they can for four minutes, and after the four minutes is complete, they measure the distance they completed and turn it into Tara Grove, the physical education teacher. Every week, Grove totals all of the distances of her students and measures how far they have travelled toward the West Coast.

With maps in each of the schools, one on their website, and one the size of a billboard at West Side Middle School, students can track where they are going and take pride in their progress.

Race Across America is getting other classes involved, not just physical education. When they travel a certain distance, the math department gets notified and uses the information to teach their students how to convert their distances. When they reach certain cities, the social studies teachers take advantage of this and explain to their students why each of these cities are important.

This is West Side's first time doing Run Across America. Grove said childhood obesity is a major problem and said she feels that the program expresses the importance of children and movement. According to Grove, many employees at Pfizer are doing a program similar to Run Across America and she felt that if an adult can buy into this than certainly a child will.

Grove said she is very excited about Run Across America and what her students can achieve through this program.

"I'm honored and it really shows true character to me. I'm a big person of character," Grove said. "The fact that they not only bought into it, they appreciate it. They are building tremendous little characters."