Empowering Girls Through Running:

BY RESIDENT AND JUNIOR WRITER ANNA ROSE

THIS FEATURE SPONSORED BY SOUTH RIDING PEDIATRICS

Girls on the Run is an afterschool program that meets twice a week. Girls in third, fourth, and fifth grade are able to participate. It’s not just a club for running though! We also do fun stuff, like learning new games about exercising. Every meeting starts off with a healthy snack, then we do a few warm-ups that include exercising and discussing ways to be kind and encouraging to ourselves and each other. We talk about “Star Power” and how were are strong and capable of reaching our goals! Next, we set our goals for running that afternoon. Then the running begins!

We started off running for really short amounts of time, and every meeting, we increase the amount of time and distance that we run, little by little. We use bracelets to track our laps (unfortunately, we don’t get to keep them!) This training gets us ready to run a community 5k race with Girls on the Run groups from other schools in our area. Also at the end of the program, we do a Community Impact Project to help meet a need in our community! We have a group of coaches that help us each meeting with our activities, direct us where to go, and even run with us!

My favorite part of participating in Girls on the Run is running with my friends. Everyone is really encouraging. For example, some girls choose to highfive each other when they pass. I like running a lot better now, especially with a friend!

Do you have a “Healthy Living” story or event you would for us to feature?

Please email billie.rose@n2co.com!

Benefits of Girls on the Run!

BY RESIDENT AND JUNIOR WRITER EVELYN ROSE