14 More Girls on the Run

This weekend marked the end of the Fall 2010 season of Girls on the Run San Diego. It has all gone by so fast! A year ago I wrapped up coaching my first season, and now this marks the end of my third season as head coach for Carmel Valley! In addition to coaching I also joined the Board of Directors earlier this year and the Marketing Committee. I'm GOTR'd out!

Wrapping up the Season

At the end of the 12 week program we had a season end celebration with the girls. Over the course of the season the girls collected beads for each lap that they ran. By the end of our season the girls in my group had a total of 1284 beads which equaled 321 miles! Quite an accomplishment for a group of 8-12 year olds! At our season end party the girls had time to take their beads and make keychains or necklaces.

The girls also had a chance during the party to make their own custom decorated visors. (Thanks Michel's craft store for your dollar bins!) The girls rotated through making things with their beads, decorating a visor, and making  a healthy snack at the yogurt sundae bar.

I had given the girls a few updates during the season regarding how many laps they had run total, but the absolute total for the season was a surprise for  the girls and each girl had a chance to guess at the total to win one of three prizes. First place won my home-made Domo box, and 2nd and 3rd place won a bag of beads. One of my girls Grace had her heart set on the Domo box and furtively committed each bead total update to memory. Guess who won? Grace did! Her efforts paid off. :o)

 

After we had craft time and snack time, it was now time for the Molly awards. The Molly awards are named after the founder of Girls on the Run Molly Barker. These awards celebrate the individual spirits of each of the girls. These awards were things like : "Ready to Run", "Always Energetic", "Silly Spirit", "Smiles for Miles", etc. Each girl was presented with her award and as she came up she received her printed award along with some fun toy treats from Coach Karin. Our girls are so spoiled! :o)

 

5K Prep
The season end party was last Thursday, and a few days later on Sunday the girls would be running their 5K. This past season there were 14 sites around San Diego County. Our chapter has had an explosion over the past year! When I first coached in Fall of 2009 there were only 6 sites. We now have 14 sites and 177 girls! When all of the sites come together for the 5K each site shows off a group cheer. Our site put together the following cheer modeled after the 'famous' banana cheer.

 

Day of the 5K

The morning of the 5K was a furry of activities! This was the biggest 5K that GOTRSD had ever put on! In previous seasons we had alternated between putting on our own race and joining an already established race. For this season we'd be putting on our own race through the national sponsorship of New Balance. The New Balance Girls on the Run 5K in San Diego was held in De Anza Cove in Mission Bay. Each girl in the race would be paired up with a volunteer Running Buddy who would stay with her during the whole race. The Running Buddies were parents, coaches, and other volunteers.

 

In addition to New Balance as a key sponsor, GOTR also has Goody. You know, the hair accessory company. Goody sponsors something called "Goody Happy Hair" for the GOTR races. This consists of a table with more Goody hair accessories than you could EVER dream of! My dear friend Jodie (my dog's second mom) and her husband were kind enough to come volunteer and be Goody Happy Hair captains and manage the volunteers at this station. The station had hair ties, headbands, barrettes, hair color spray, and hair claws.

 

The 5K Begins

At 8am the race was scheduled to begin! Everyone lined up ... and they were off! My official role during the race was "course cheerleader", something I have quite a bit of experience with. (Cheerleading captain senior year in high school thank you!). I had my sign and cowbell ready, and cheered the girls and others off on the course (out and back) and then on the way back, before rushing back to the finish line with a couple of my other coaches.

 

Watching the race was pretty emotional for me. Running has been a huge part of my life in the past few years, and finishing my first 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon, and  triathlon have been life changing. To watch these girls run their firs 5K during their ELEMENTARY SCHOOL years is so moving! *sniff sniff* Many of these girls are repeat GOTR participants and I've seen several of them progress over the years from walkers, to begrudging runners, to real runners. They loved running and always begged for more running time! The girls in my group (and other girls) came by one by one and approached the finish line, and then completed their first 5K. Amazing! These girls are truly amazing.

The Change
Girls on the Run is an incredible program. As head coach I have the luxury of being in direct and regular contact with the parents, so I receive a lot of feedback about their daughters' experiences. I've had so many of the parents reach out to me to share positive ways the program has affected their daughter, and it is so heartwarming. I've heard stories about how the girls have gained self-confidence, found something that is "theirs" that they are good at, found ways to cope in school, how they have become closer to their mom as they've discussed GOTR topics, and many other things. I feel that I'm just a facilitator between the program and the girls and I'm not directly responsible for these changes, but its so rewarding to know that I"m a small part of these life-changing events in the grand scheme of their lives.

Whats Next?

I've now been a Head Coach for three seasons now. While its a bit of a burnout job, its so rewarding that I can't imaging giving it up! Its so hard for me to leave work really early two days a week though, so when talking to our director about starting up a new group at our site I suggested that we start the new group a tad big later. Looks like its going to happen! I've coached Girls on the Run for three seasons now, and this program is meant for 8-12 year old girls in elementary school. The international organization also has  program for middle school girls called Girls on Track. GOTRSD piloted a GOT program at one site this past season, and is looking to expand to more sites going forward. I'm so excited to find out that it will next happen at my site in Carmel Valley!

So for Spring 2011 I will be coaching Girls on Track in Carmel Valley. The program will be similar to GOTR, but will be focused more on issues for older girls. I'm excited for the change, and so happy for the growth of GOTR in the an Diego area. Want to get involved? You can find more info about the program here: http://gotrsd.org/volunteer/

For my recap of the previous season and 5K, click here of the Spring 2010 recap.

For a recap of my first season coaching  and the Fall 2009 season end 5K, click here.