Girls On The Run

Next week I will start as head coach for Girls On The Run Carmel Valley! I'm so excited!

I first heard about Girls On The Run a few years ago when I saw a group of girls wearing Girls On The Run shirts at a 5K race in Phoenix. I was curious about the organization but never really looked into it until last year when I was looking online for volunteer opportunities in San Diego. As life would have it, my schedule last year was way too crazy to commit to a regular volunteer position. I kind of forgot about the organization and my desires to volunteer until about a month ago. I was looking up local running events online on active.com when I came across an event for Girls On The Run. A few clicks later and I was on the local San Diego website.(http://www.gotrsd.org) As luck would have it this time ... on the front page of the website was a call for volunteer coaches!

About Girls On The Run:

Mission To educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. About Girls on the Run is a life-changing, experiential learning programs for girls age eight to thirteen years old. The programs combine training for a 3.1 mile running event with self-esteem enhancing, uplifting workouts. The goals of the programs are to encourage positive emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development. Objectives The Girls on the Run objective is to reduce the potential display of at-risk activities among its participants. The goal is fewer adolescent pregnancies and eating disorders, less depression and suicide attempts, as well as fewer substance/alcohol abuse problems and confrontations with the juvenile justice system.

I applied immediately and kept my fingers crossed that I would be chosen to coach. I'm not sure if they contact everyone who applies or not, but I got an email a couple weeks ago inviting me to a meet & greet happy hour event to meet other volunteers. I went and met with a number of the ladies involved and was even more interested in joining the group. Next up was coaches training which luckily occurred on a weekend I was in town! Last weekend I attended the 4-hour coaches training and learned more about what coaching entailed, what each session with the girls would be like, and what types of exercises and lessons we'd cover.

I was surprised to learn that the focus of the program was more about personal development for the girls than it was about running. Learning to run seemed to happen as a side effect of playing the various games and exercises that were planned for each session.

For example, one exercise we looked at was understanding what types of foods belonged in each food group. The girls are given a card with a food group on it. They have to take the card, run it across a certain distance to a coach and give her an example of a food that falls into that food group, and then run back to the start. How fun! I wish I could have learned things that way as a kid!

So next Tuesday is the first session! Luckily I'm getting back from my trip to Boston on Tuesday with just enough time to make it. There are 24 sessions (2/week) in the program leading up to a final 5K in December. Amazingly enough, I will only miss 2 of the 24 sessions due to work travel! (Luckily for me, or should I say UN-luckily for me, the majority of my travel for work spans a weekend and I'll be back in time for the Tuesday/Thursday sessions I've committed to. )

I'm excited and a bit nervous! I haven't worked with kids before and I'm nervous to be leading the group of girls and the 6 other assistant coaches. Hopefully things will come naturally and go smoothly and we will all have fun. Two of the assistant coaches have coached before and should make things a lot easier.

I'll report back after the first session. Keep your fingers crossed for me!