Runners, walkers and strollers gathered … your child’s friend to your left, your neighbor to the right. Girls excitedly gigling in their color-sprayed hair and yellow bows. Everyone swathed in Boston Marathon blue and #1 bibs. The music starts. “Slide to the left,” then “Slide to the right. Right foot stomp. Left foot stomp.” You can’t help but to follow along, while the serious racers take a back seat to the younger ones, out for the fun of it at the front of the startline. Superhero-clad Sotheby's real estate agents give a little “power” cheer near the center of the crowd.
What sort of race is this … ?
The countdown to start sets you in motion amongst the rest of the crowd—the crowd that when you look around makes up the faces of your community.
As you took your strides around the first corner, then the next, you could see a young girl ahead flanked by her running partners. Maybe she just passed her first mile, donning her beads to commemorate this first marker. As you come up along side of her, did you see her smile? Did you hear her breathing? Could you feel her determination to keep going?
That’s a girl that has found a piece of her inner strength, the piece that will propel her in the future to make and keep goals, to choose to ignore the box that her peers and her environment will place her in, and to shine as bright as her inner heart desires. She was a runner that day, and thanks to you she found a place in a community bigger than she’s ever experienced before.
The middle of May can bring just about any sort of weather to Hailey, but just as always promised (or almost always) one of the first brilliant spring Saturdays went hand in hand with the annual Girls on the Run Community 5k & Healthy Living Expo. And just in time to celebrate their 10th Anniversary.
Over 300 racers traveled the new course that took them through beautiful Draper Preserve and over the Bow Bridge, located at the west end of Hailey. When asked about the course, one Girls on the Run program participant said, “Wow, that didn’t even seem like three miles!”
In Heagle Park following the race, racers and spectators enjoyed games for the family, tasty smoothie samples, hula hoop competitions, bocce ball tossing, world peace face-painting and making tags for their pets.
Darlene Young of Sotheby’s International Realty, a long time 5K sponsor and participant in the Corporate Team Challenge for the "Best Spirit Award," shared post-race how much fun and camaraderie they had as a company participating in the race the way they did this year. She was all smiles when she shared, “One of the girls came up to me and asked to have my wig. I happily handed it over!”
And when team Sun Valley Company asked if they could utilize the Girls on the Run logo to do something special, they surprised everyone with signs on their backs and a team banner that read “Sun Valley Resort Leans in for Girls on the Run.”
At a lunch time ceremony to thank donors and volunteers, one Girls on the Run participant read from her essay about how the program has helped her “Stand Up For Good” to end girl-to-girl bullying. Hailey Elementary 3rd grader Caroline Seward read, “I have a dream that everyone in the community can help me accomplish … that each one of us just loves each other … Thank you coaches for empowering us every week and showing us how to stop bullying."
The day ended with words of gratitude to volunteer coaches that are making an impact on so many girls across the Wood River Valley.
Top finishers in this 10th annual race include:
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Top Men
Pedro Morales, age 23 – 16:23
Josh Switzer, age 29 at 19:21
Parker Jones, age 18 – 20:37
Top Women
Jena Greaser, age 27 – 19:12
Amy Ando, age 28 – 20:52
Julie Carne, age 46 – 21:05
Top Female Youth
Emily Siegel, age 14 – 25:54
Top Male Youth
Bodie Bennet, age 14 – 21:02
To get involved as either a participating or volunteer mentor coach, visit girlsontherunwrv.org for information about the upcoming fall season, which will begin September 23, 2013. New coach training is set for Saturday, September 7. Email mary@girlsontherunwrv.org to inquire about being a coach.
All photos courtesy of Girls on the Run.
