Raina's first 5K

Raina joined Girls on the Run this year.  GOTR is an organization that coaches girls on leadership, empowerment, and running a 5K race.  Never one for organized sports, Raina found she excelled at running and she beamed with all the praise she received from her coaches.  She determined that she was faster than many of her peers and she had more endurance than she realized.  Eric and I started to invite her on our morning runs and Raina began accepting the invitations.  Raina began to associate the term “runner” as an attribute for herself. 

Then she had her practice 5K race at school.  I was told that I should follow Raina’s lead on how she wanted to run her practice 5K and just encourage her verbally throughout the race.  I worried about this plan – on our weekend runs Raina wanted to sprint and then walk, which is not a successful distance model – but I deferred to the experience of her GOTR coaches.  The practice 5K day was cold, windy, misty, and miserable.  Raina sprinted and expended all her energy early and then was completely defeated by the fact that she was walking when everyone else was finishing the race.  She wanted to quit, she cried, and I negotiated with her, cajoled her, dragged her, and irritated her through the remainder of the race.  She finished but it was a trial for everyone.  Raina left that experience crushed and she told me that she did not want to run the GOTR 5K in two weeks.

This was not an option.  Our good friend Tina Kearney gave the #1 race bib to Raina for her first race.  Raina’s grandparents were coming to see her run.  And we had paid the registrations.  She was doing the race!  We just needed to do the 5K differently.

We talked a lot about strategy of running, of efficiency, of pacing, of attitude.  We did a few runs over the next few weeks together, trying to regain her confidence.  And we talked it up as a “complete, not compete” model. 

The 5K race day was beautiful: sunny, cool, and full of energy.  The GOTR folks really know how to put on a party!  They had colored hair spray and lots of music, everyone was in the same bright colored shirts, there were cheerleaders and supporters everywhere.  Raina refused to be excited by these things.  She was clearly nervous.  I was BOUNCY with energy, which embarrassed Raina even more. 

Finally the race began.  We let other folks run around us as we picked one pace person to follow.  Raina warmed up and wanted to run faster, so we picked up the pace and found a new person to follow.  We stuck with a ridiculously happy guy pushing a stroller with a boombox inside.  He blared high energy music and sang at the top of his lungs and I knew we wanted to connect with his energy for as long as possible.  He saw us to the last half-mile, where Raina sprinted to the finish. 

Raina walked on occasion but ran most of the distance.  It was hard but not as hard as she thought it would be and she was incredibly proud of herself for making it all the way through.  I admit to crying tears of relief mid-way through the race when I could see the experience was going to positive for her.  Thank goodness!

Here are before and after photos of our #1 runner!