Girls on the Run
by Charles @ The long road to Ironman
Last week while looking on active.com for another 1/2 IM to try before the big day, I came across a small "race" in SF that was looking for volunteers and "Buddy Runners". I looked a bit further into it and the group, Girls on the Run, works to build confidence and self esteem through non competitive running and the program ends with a 1mile or 5k run. Seemed like a fun cause and a good way to spend a Saturday morning so I signed up.
The weather was beautiful and the kids were very excited and had a very "race" like atmosphere. The kids were all grouped by there schools and coaches and just full of prerace energy. My Buddy runner was an 8 year old girl named Demetria who was very shy and probably said 2 words to me before we started. She had opted for the 1 mile race and we lined up near the start line after some quick stretching and were all set to go. The horn sounded and off we went... at a full sprint! I had my Garmin with me just for fun and clocked us at better the 8 min/mile pace while trying to weave in and out of other kids and parents. There is no way that I could maintain this pace for the whole mile and was beginning to fear that she might pull away from me when she stopped... suddenly... right in front of me :-) It was all I could do to not run her over. We walked for a bit and I tried to encourage her that she may want to pace herself a bit. She agreed and so we started off again... at the same pace :-)
After the 1/2 mile mark Demetria was starting to show signs of fatigue as her run/walk ratio was sliding more towards walking but she was still in good spirits so i wasn't worried. As we got closer to the finish I told her we could walk as much as she needed but my only rule was that we needed to run across the finish line. That being said she went off at a full sprint even faster then the earlier sprints. Luckily, the crowd had spread out a bit and i had an open path to keep at her side as she crossed the finish line in 13:28 but at a sprint that clocked at 6:57/mile pace.
Other then needing to work on pacing a bit, i could not have asked for a better "buddy" and I swear that at no time during the whole morning did she stop smiling!
A great event and a great group. For more info please check http://www.gotrbayarea.org/
I believe it is a nation wide organization so you can look up the local chapter.
The weather was beautiful and the kids were very excited and had a very "race" like atmosphere. The kids were all grouped by there schools and coaches and just full of prerace energy. My Buddy runner was an 8 year old girl named Demetria who was very shy and probably said 2 words to me before we started. She had opted for the 1 mile race and we lined up near the start line after some quick stretching and were all set to go. The horn sounded and off we went... at a full sprint! I had my Garmin with me just for fun and clocked us at better the 8 min/mile pace while trying to weave in and out of other kids and parents. There is no way that I could maintain this pace for the whole mile and was beginning to fear that she might pull away from me when she stopped... suddenly... right in front of me :-) It was all I could do to not run her over. We walked for a bit and I tried to encourage her that she may want to pace herself a bit. She agreed and so we started off again... at the same pace :-)
After the 1/2 mile mark Demetria was starting to show signs of fatigue as her run/walk ratio was sliding more towards walking but she was still in good spirits so i wasn't worried. As we got closer to the finish I told her we could walk as much as she needed but my only rule was that we needed to run across the finish line. That being said she went off at a full sprint even faster then the earlier sprints. Luckily, the crowd had spread out a bit and i had an open path to keep at her side as she crossed the finish line in 13:28 but at a sprint that clocked at 6:57/mile pace.
Other then needing to work on pacing a bit, i could not have asked for a better "buddy" and I swear that at no time during the whole morning did she stop smiling!
A great event and a great group. For more info please check http://www.gotrbayarea.org/
I believe it is a nation wide organization so you can look up the local chapter.
Joanne says:
May 21st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Charles…..that is so awesome! Glad you enjoyed yourself and as always you are a wonderful example for others. Take care…see you soon.
Jo