Column: GOTR – I’m all in for the fun
Editor’s note: If you pass by a York, Lancaster or Chester county school hosting a Girls on the Run or Heart & Sole team this fall, you’ll hear girls in third to eighth grades and their volunteer coaches happily shouting “Girls on the Run is SO MUCH FUN!”
Each week, read about the programs from sixth-grader Farrah Speaks in the paper and online. She’ll share what it means to be a GOTR girl, and update you on the fun and learning happening throughout the season.
It all started last year… I went to school one day and I saw my friend with a GOTR shirt on. So I asked. “What’s Girls on the Run?”
She explained to me that GOTR was a girls’ running team where you train to run a 5K. So I thought maybe I should do that, it seemed like fun. That is the moment that started my anticipation of when I could be a GOTR runner.
I love running! I do not know why, but the motion of people’s legs moving really fast is like a masterpiece. Runners pump their arms like they are powering their bodies forward. The look on their faces is a mix of concentration and determination. I haven’t really been on a team before or run a 5K race so GOTR is a new experience. I am ready to ROCK this opportunity.
Yes, I’m in it for the fun of it all! As soon as I heard about Girls on the Run at my new school I thought, “Ooh! Yay – a running team for girls!” I love to write. So becoming the Girls on the Run Reporter is like a dream.
I hope to accomplish being strong and flexible enough to run a 5K. I am pretty sure if I tried now I would make it to about half a 5K. Then my body would laugh at the challenge and insist I lay down. I think having confidence in the face of challenges produces strength under pressure. This kind of strength will empower the girl who has it to succeed.
These are the reasons why I must be a Girl on the Run!
Learn more:
Girls on the Run and Heart & Sole are self esteem and wellness programs that educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self respect and healthy living. During the 10-week season, the programs inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum that integrates running. At the end of the season, the girls are ready to complete a 5K. This season, more than 600 girls, along with their coaches and running buddies, will run, walk, or skip across the finish line of Piedmont Medical Center’s Reindeer Romp benefiting Girls on the Run on Dec. 5.
For more information about Girls on the Run of the Tri County, email Sarah Heins, program coordinator, at sarah.heins@girlsontherun.org.
This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Column: GOTR – I’m all in for the fun."