15 New Girls on the Run

This week marks the start of Girls on the Run San Diego's Fall season. I will be returning for my third season as Head Coach for Carmel Valley, a role that I have truly loved! The program has grown from 8 to 14 sites this season and this past weekend I helped out with coaches training. Its crazy to think that just one year ago I was being trained myself. Looking back, this past year has been a whirlwind of change!

GOTR Shirts for the Volunteers 

 

To prepare for the season, a team of volunteers helped put together the materials that support each of the 14 sites. You'd be amazed if you saw everything that was used during the 24-lesson season in one room.  The materials for just one site fill up an entire storage tub and a reusable grocery bag! In addition to the lesson materials, each site receives a supply of dry snacks to give the girls at the end of each lesson. That means a tub of pretzels, a tub of animal crackers, a box of goldfish crackers, and a box of fruit snacks. My trunk looks like I just raided Target!

 Collection of Coach Boxes

 

For those who like numbers, these stats will knock your socks off! Coach box preparation took 9 volunteers who worked for 37 hours during 4 supply prep sessions. The 14 sites can accommodate 210 girls, and have 74 volunteer coaches running the programs. It took 3 trips to Costco to buy supplies for the 24 lessons per season.

In total, the supplies needed for Fall 2010 were:

• 14 tubs of animal crackers
• 28 tubs of pretzels
• 28 boxes of gold fish
• 42 tennis balls
• 56 orange cones
• 280 markers
• 630 Ziploc bags
• 3440 index cards
• 7000 stickers
• 13000 beads

 

Amazing isn't it? During coach training this past weekend and a few weeks ago we passed out the supplies to each of the head coaches, and spent half a day walking them through the Girls on the Run program's mission and core values, had them practice leading a few lessons, showed them examples of energy awards that they'll help teach the girls, and explained how to run a smooth and successful program.

 

My favorite energy award by far is the BANANA cheer! I'm totally going to teach my girls this cheer!

  

Banana Cheer - GO BANANAS!

I'm about nervous about the time I'm about to give up again from my evenings to coach, but know that every moment sacrificed is worth it. (We'll see how I feel about that tomorrow when I leave for work at 6:30am so I can leave early to go coach. :oP ha!)  The time I've spent with the girls is a lot of fun, it's really rewarding, and it has helped me grow as a person as I've learned to do something totally new and different.

 

Practicing a Lesson

 

And ... let's not pass up the chance for me to toot my own horn, but think I'm actually really good at being a head coach. (Part of the reason why I enjoy it so much.) As I've said before, we all like things that we're good at. I attribute most of this skill to my psychotic need for order and organization, and my desire to have fun and make sure others around me are having fun as well. Who knew those two things could go together so well?

  

Circle of Celebration of Positive Attributes

 

The Carmel Valley site has had an amazing retention rate. (Had to throw some work speak in here!) For this coming season there will be two groups, one on Mon/Wed and one on Tues/Thurs. I was amazed to see that 13 of the 30 girls registered at Carmel Valley have been in the program before! Across the other 12 sites there are only 9 other girls who have been in the program before. If only I could get customers of my product to be this loyal! Hmm...

Anyways, I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the start of a new season. Go Girls on the Run! You're so much fun!

Next Race - Let's GO!

The next full marathon that I run will be the Rock N Roll marathon here in San Diego on Sunday June 6th, 2010. This race holds a very special place in my heart! The Rock N Roll Marathon (RNR Marathon) was my first full marathon in June 2005, was my PR (personal record) race in June 2008, was my PR race in June 2009, AND .. was my first opportunity to race as a quasi celebrity.

Foot Locker Challenge Team 2009

I ran this race last year as a part of the Foot Locker Challenge team (more about this on my blog "Marathon #10 - Check!). It was an awesome opportunity and experience, and made this race so much more special to me. I really love San Diego and think that this course is ideal. Great weather, a mostly flat course, a view of the city, and the beach - what more can you ask for??

This year I will be running for a reason - to support Girls on the Run San Diego. (My fundraising page. )  As most of you know, I am a coach for GOTR! I started coaching last fall, and I am now serving my second season as head coach in Carmel Valley. I have also recently joined the GOTRSD Board of Directors, as well as the Marketing team. I can't say enough good things about GOTR. There are few things in my life where my efforts result in a direct impact in someone's LIFE. I now understand why people become teachers... But seriously, I have seen how this program and the efforts of my great team of coaches has improved the lives of young girls. How do I know this? Well their mom's tell me!

Girls on the Run Fall 5K

 

I have received sooo many emails from the girls' mothers sharing ways in which the program has impacted their daughters in a positive way. It really just amazes me. Knowing that I am one small piece in each girls life that has made her world a better place is such a rewarding thing for me, and I only have GOTR to thank for this. The funny thing is that this program is not about ME or any of the other coaches, but I know that it has impacted our lives as well.

Girls Showing "Confident Poses"

Stretching Before a Run

 

For my next marathon I'm fundraising for GOTR to help bring this program to areas of the city that have girls who can't afford the program. Normally this program has a fee associated with it. The fee covers a variety of things - tshirts, water bottles, fees to use track facilities, entrance into the 5k, snacks, the curriculum, etc.

Making Healthy Snacks

 Ants on a Log

Sadly though, not every girl has the opportunity to participate in a program that charges a fee. I'm fundraising for GOTR to help bring this incredible program to areas of San Diego where this program is most needed for its young girls! But sadly this program (without your support) might not be affordable.

 Girls Drawings of their Positive Selves

 Listing Attributes of a Strong Girl

 

Please help me raise money for GOTR. Your donation will be well purposed.

http://www.active.com/donate/SoleMates2010/monikool

- Monika

(PS - excuse any typos! The spell check button is hiding on my blog editor!)

26 Girls On The Run!

This week is my third week coaching Girls On The Run! It has been so much fun and I'm really glad I got involved in the program. I originally signed up to be a coach in Balboa Park near my apartment (and 45 minutes from work), but the week before we started the coaching director asked if I'd consider coaching at a location closer to my work since they had two of us who wanted to be head coach in Balboa Park, but no one who could do it in Carmel Valley. I figured it would probably be safer to have a location closer to work since my drive home varies in duration (thanks to the unpredictable traffic) so I agreed to become the head coach for Carmel Valley!

Registration The First Day

Prior to starting our season, the director had mentioned that Carmel Valley ended up with a significantly higher number of participants than the other locations. They usually get 10-15 girls per location, but this year 24 girls had signed up! By the our fourth session that number actually crept up to 26 girls! Wow, that's a lot of girls. (A lot of energy too in a group ages 8-12!) Luckily there are also eight of us coaching so we seem to have things under control. Some coaches come on Tuesdays, some come on Thursdays, and a couple others come both days as their schedule permits. This leaves us with 4 or 5 coaches per session. As head coach I'm there for every session. (Well minus two sessions that I have to miss due to travel for work.)

Lesson 1 - Getting To Know Each Other

Our first lesson was all about getting to know each other! The great thing about the Girls On The Run (GOTR) program is that it incorporates running into a number of fun learning exercises. During the "Getting To Know Each Other" lesson, one of the games that we played was a name tag tag game! Each girl had a sheet of labels with every other girl's name on it. We then started running laps and each time a girl passed another girl, they'd stick the correct name tag on her back. (Each girl was wearing a name tag on the front to prevent the name from being totally impossible.) The girls ran several laps playing this game and by the end everyone was giggling, covered in stickers, and trying to help each other peel stickers off their backs and the ends of their ponytails for the longer haired girls.

Getting The Girls Ready For An Exercise

Lesson 2 - Being A Girl Of Your Word

In the second lesson we learned about making important, positive promises and expectations such as being healthy, completing homework assignments, and listening to our parents. This time as we started running laps and playing games we started handing out small plastic beads to each girl as she came around the field and finished a lap. The girls carried a little plastic bag with them as they ran, would get their bead, put it in the bag, and go on for the next lap. Not only is this a great way to keep them motivated, but its also a great way for Coach Monika to keep track of their laps each week!

Lesson 3 - Making Important Changes

With two lessons a week we started our second week with Lesson 3 which focused on "Making Important Changes". We had the girls identify negative behaviors, and then positive behaviors in contrast to them. Each girl wrote down four negative behaviors on index cards, and when they started running their laps they'd come up to us and slam their negative behavior card into the scary SENOR HIDEOUS BOX, collect a bead, and then keep going for the next lap.

Senor Hideous

During our discussion of negative behaviors a number of funny things were revealed:

1. Apparently all kids fight with/are mean to/bite their siblings (how would I know, I'm an only child)
2. Tipping your chair back in class is a popular, rebellious activity for 8-12 year old girls
3. Almost all kids have eaten cat or dog food, play-doh, or sand (seriously??)

We were encouraging the discussion of negative behaviors when one girl raised her hand and said "I've eaten dog food!" (OMG!) I laughed and said "Okay, but let's focus more on behaviors that you know are bad in the way that they make someone else feel bad." Another hand shoots up.

"I've eaten cat food!" Another hand - "ME too!" "So have I!"

HAHA! Okay, so while trying not to laugh too much, I tried to direct the conversation back to our topic, but made a joke that in my day kids used to eat play-doh and not pet food. A hand goes up. "I've eaten play-doh!" "Me too!" Omg.. okay... so we pretty much derailed on that exercise after a while, but were able to move on to the next game. Too funny!

Lesson 4 - Taking Care Of Our Physical Health

In lesson 4 we talked about healthy habits (brushing your teeth, eating fruits and vegetables, getting enough sleep, etc) and also discussed the food pyramid, the food groups, and examples of foods that went into each food group.

Food Type Artwork From The Girls

The trick question of the day? What food group does peanut butter fit into? Meats and proteins or fats and oils?? I'm leaning mostly towards meats and proteins.... but still, hmm..

So far the group of girls has completed 258 laps (that's a lot of beads) and 65 miles! On average each girl is running about a mile each session. By the end of the program (12 weeks, 24 lessons) the girls will be prepared to run a 5k! (3.1 miles)

Getting through all of the games and exercises in the 1 hour 15 minute time slot is pretty challenging. Organizing and preparing for the sessions for the coaches and sending out updates after each session to the parents is becoming a bit time consuming. I'm starting to feel like I have a second job! Make that third job actually, marathon training is my second job right now! Its all worth it though and its been a lot of fun.

We have 18 more sessions to go! I'm sure you'll hear more from me about it throughout the season.

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!