Our 9-Year Old Ran Her 1st Official 5K!!!

A pre-race sisterly hug!

My wife and I try to model healthy and positive behaviors before the ever watchful eyes of our two daughters. Our number one goal is to help they grow up to be individuals who are complete in the following facets of life: mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

For me, from a physical perspective growing up, neither of my parents lived active lifestyles. In fact I don’t recall my mom or dad ever throwing a baseball, football or Frisbee with me and forget about running!

Taylor and a GOTR
running buddy at
the end of the 5K

My wife and I have pledged to break that sedentary cycle for our girls, and we were thrilled to hear about a program offered at our daughters’elementary school called “Girls on the Run.”

GOTR is a fabulous non-profit program based out of Charlotte, NC that seeks as its stated mission, “To educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living.”

Our 9-year old was eligible for the GOTR program and she has been training since late September with other classmates for a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) race that was held this past Sunday. Check out the pictures of her accomplishment!

All finishers got this cool medal -
the nail polish was optional

GOTR is an incredible program that truly seeks to inspire girls to become the best they can be through goal-setting, positive behavior, friendship, discipline and exercise. Here’s the program’s ultra-cool objective as posted on the GOTR web site.

“The objective of Girls on the Run is to educate and empower girls at an early age in order to prevent the display of at-risk activities in the future. At risk activities include substance/alcohol use, eating disorders, early onset of sexual activity, sedentary lifestyle, depression, suicide attempts and confrontations with the juvenile justice system.” 



The GOTR Crew from
CG Elementary

 I can’t adequately express how proud we are of our daughter for her accomplishment and our expectation for her to be joined by her sister once Sydney is old enough to take part. This is a wonderful program and I applaud the volunteers who organized the race and the running coaches who dedicated time to the girls.

Here’s the GOTR web site http://www.girlsontherun.org/default.html if you’re interested in seeing if it might be appropriate for your Tween-age daughter or school. You won't regret it and neither will the little ladies in your life!