For the past few months Isabel has been participating in a program called "GIRLS ON THE RUN". It is an awesome program for girls who are in 3rd-5th grade. Their mission is "to educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self respect and healthy living."
Basically, for 2 months they met twice a week after school to "train" for a 5k and basically pump up their self image, self esteem etc. It was also a great motivator that their coaches were all cute young female students from the CMU Phyical Therapy program! (Great motivation for an impressionable 9 year old!!)
So after 8 weeks of "training", last Saturday was the big race.... what a great experience! Before the race began, there was a "hair" station where the girls could get their hair "done".... (aka: braided, pony tail, clipped up, etc... topped off with their choice of color sprayed in their hair...) Here is our girl getting her hair done:
Here is our group: (Isabel is on the lower right)
Here they are at the starting line... I'm not sure how many girls ran.... it had to be something like 500 or so. (Give or take a hundred!)
Tom and I decided to run the race with her... Since I'm not a runner, I was a bit nervous, but I thought that it would be pretty easy due to the age of the girls... (aka: I thought there would be more walking and less running....) NOT! My girl had trained harder than I had anticipated. Here are the 3 of us crossing the finish line.
Here is Isabel with her friend Hailey... (who goes to another school but attends our church). I can't say enough good about this sweet girl. She kept my girl going when she wanted to quit... and vice-a-versa. So a big shout out to Hailey!!
All in all it was such a wonderful experience. Looking forward to it next year!
