Published by the DAILY
RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, March 1,
2015
Girls on the run registration opens today
Registration opens this morning, March 1st at
9:00 a.m. for the spring session of Girls on the Run. Most of the readers of this column will not
fit the criteria for this running group but their daughters or granddaughters
might.
You’ve seen them at some of the road races that you enter –
eager girls, sometimes walking, sometimes running but at the end of the 5K they
are beaming. No, not beaming because of
their fast time, but beaming because they were finishing a 5K – doing something
impossible that they had proved to themselves was possible. And that is what Girls on the Run is all
about.
Program director Anne Klein was enthusiastic when we spoke
this week. The Morris area is growing
from when it was featured here in 2013.
Klein’s enthusiasm is evident as she talked about how the program has
expanded year after year. In Morris
there are 18 locations including three in my town of Randolph, and they are
being hosted by three of the elementary schools.
“Randolph has been wonderful,” said Klein. “They’re fantastic - the whole town. The teachers are just loving it. They seem to enjoy the program and want to
get involved.”
Each council has paid staff but all of the coaches are
volunteers who are trained in the curriculum and the mission of the
program. The size of each team is from
fifteen to twenty girls and that is determined by the number of coaches for
each team.
What Klein said might be surprising about a program that
sounds like a girls running program. Not
so, exactly. There is so much more than
running to Girls on the Run according to Klein.
“We have some girls who love running that come to Girls on
the Run. We have girls who hate running
that come,” she said. “It really doesn’t
matter.”
Some of the coaches are runners like Klein, and some who only
walk. All are welcome. The coaches follow a nationally written
curriculum developed by a social worker.
Self esteem comes first said Klein and running is just the means.
“The program is teaching the girls to appreciate the gifts
that they have on the inside,” she said.
“We teach the girls how to use those gifts to form friendships and to
communicate well with others. They learn to do great things within their
team and then within their community.
The growth and self esteem is the sought for result.”
The running is the tool.
The girls learn about goal setting and how good it feels to get your
body active, to accomplish that goal of completing a 5K in the end.
“Quite honestly the
majority of the girls run and walk it. It’s
not about them running an entire 5K distance,” said Klein. “It’s really about putting them in a position
that they can have success and accomplish a goal. That means just getting to that finish
line. That’s where the self esteem building
concept comes in. These girls feel like
rock stars when they cross the finish line.”
“As coaches we see these quiet girls, unsure and closed off
little girls and they just blossom into butterflies by the end of the season,”
she said. “Their confidence grows. They get more comfortable. They start believing in themselves and
enjoying their experience with teammates.
It’s life changing.”
For more information and to see if your community has a program
and to register your daughter go to girlsontherunnj.org.
Men and Women on the Run in Summit
Big girls and boys are being offered an opportunity to be
coached starting next Tuesday, March 10th. in Summit.
In these training sessions the emphasis is on improving race times and
the side effect may be self esteem as well, bringing a little bit of Girls on
the Run smiles as the runners hit their personal bests.
Aileen Flanagan of Parsippany posted a note to her Rose City
Runners that Coach Dave Hoch is offering a nine week coaching program for
runners in this area. Flanagan credits
Hoch’s coaching with her personal record in the Charleston SC half marathon in
January.
The sessions will last for nine weeks and will be tailored
to each runner’s goal race distance and their current fitness level. For more information contact Hoch at coachhoch@aol.com.
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Have you seen the jaw dropping two minute video yet?
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