About 10 middle schools from the area gathered inside a local middle school's cafeteria and when I arrived there all of the girls were jumping around doing warm ups that a woman was leading them in. It was pretty funny and their energy was definitely infectious! I found Alysha and started warming up too. Soon after that we all walked outside to the start line. It was pretty chilly and threatening rain (which thankfully held off until we were walking back to our cars later) but there was still a large parent turnout to support the girls and also a large community turnout to participate in the run. Since I was a running buddy for Alysha we could run together instead of having to stay with her coach which was really nice since she could actually run at a speed that was comfortable for her, instead of staying with a group.
We started off much faster than I normally do and after a mile I told her I had to walk. That girl is fast! The route was pretty flat with only one big hill with a water stop at the bottom of it before we had to run back up. We headed back toward the last loop and were cheered on by parents of the girls and some people who were dressed up as mugs of hot chocolate and dancing. We stopped for one last walk break and I told her that we were going to run the last .5 mile without walking. I could tell she was getting tired, but she was up for it, so we ran pretty hard for that last .5 mile. Right before the finish we started to sprint and I let her pull ahead of me a little so she could finish on her own. What a great accomplishment for these girls! She got her medal and we had her mom take the obligatory finishers photo. I looked at my Runkeeper and saw that we had run the 5k in 32:20 which was a PR for me! I thought that was pretty awesome and it showed how hard we worked on that run.
After the run there was hot chocolate (obviously!), donuts from Dunkin Donuts, water and bananas. I took a hot chocolate and donut but they were overly sweet and made my stomach upset, so I went back for a water and banana and felt much better.
I really think the Girls on Track is such a wonderful program for middle school girls. It gives them something to work towards and gives them a huge sense of accomplishment during a time where they are trying to discover their identities. I'm hoping Alysha decides to participate in the program again next year so we can beat our time!
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