Girls on the Run is SO much FUN!

 Speaking of GOTR in my previous post, we are wrapping up today and this Sunday (as I write this November 10th) is our big 5K it's been a really fun season and we have had AMAZING weather. Only one rain day, which was this Tuesday we had to move indoors and then the race Sunday is going to be COLD! But we can't complain because every other practice was amazing. 

Back story: So after helping with the running club in Kansas I was inspired to get something going at our new school. In Kansas it was a basic running club, co-ed grades 2-5th. We would just split up in pace groups and run laps in the neighborhood. It was about a .8 mile loop and we did this two days a week for a couple months leading up to a 5K that we all registered for together. 

I had heard about girls on the run but had no experience with it. But thinking "oh hey I don't have to reinvent the wheel I can just get this up and going" I attended the coach training in the summer and learned it was a LITTLE more involved than just running laps. HA! Jokes on me I was already committed. It's basically like girls scouts but with running, lol. Which is GREAT! Just very involved. So there is a curriculum they give us and it's so amazing everything they have prepped. We got a Mary Poppins bag with all the supplies we could ever need including copies of worksheet for the girls all the way down to the number we would need. They even give us a spending card to buy snacks for every practice. So we meet for 90 minutes, twice a week and do a lesson on really valuable topics: self-esteem, positive self talk, bullying, gossip, friendship... there are 24 or so lessons. All the coaches are required to attend the training and we are to follow the curriculum as written. Normal season is 10 weeks (20 lessons) but given the fall they condense it a bit due to school starting after Labor Day and needing to get the 5K in before thanksgiving and before the cold hits. 

Some fun photos from the season

Mid-way through our Minnesota chapter hosts an open house for coaches to come grab their girls' shirts, supplies for the practice 5K, and our coach appreciation gift - which was this pink beanie hat. 

I was super excited to make our practice 5K EXTRA special! And it gave me an excuse to make signs :-) We had an awesome practice location and were able to utilize our beautiful lake to run around for our practice 5K course. 

We survived really only ONE maybe two cold practice days and they weren't that bad at all, low of 42 at one. 

Practice 5K day was November 1st! I made a balloon tower for the finish, got it loaded in the van, lol. 

Kyle even helped out and the boys set up a legit water station halfway through on the south side of the lake. The girls loved it!

Coach Traci and I didn't run in the practice 5K because we got the finish line set up, but we had a great turn out of parents to run with their girls and with our other 3 coaches we were able to have the girls in pairs for a 2:1 girl:adult ratio. I had 4 moms that volunteered to be crossing guards at a point where there was heavy traffic and two roads and a bike lane all to pass at once. So thankful they were helping. 

We couldn't have asked for better weather for our practice 5K, it was so fun! Excited for Sunday for the real deal! Gonna be in the teens at the start of the race, yikes. 

Oh I made this sign too for the girls to take their pictures with. We had a bubble machine at the finish too. Next time we just need a louder speaker for the music :-) 

Had to capture this gorgeous view as Mary and I went around to pick up our mile marker signs. 

We still had a few more practices after the 5K. This was an impromptu conga line, love it!

And our only rained out practice, but worked out perfectly because we planned our community service project that is to be completed at the end of every girls on the run season. 

Re-visited the untangling emotions game with the human knot. 

And even let the girls "shhhhhh" run in school! They love it!

Excited for many more seasons to come. Even though it was a LOT of work, I loved it and loved the joy it brought to all the girls involved. We'll be doing spring season as well.