Outpacing Low Esteem –
Girls on the Run!

By Alyssa Vine

We all remember that red-faced feeling of standing in front of a classroom as an oral presentation goes awry, classmates tittering in the background. Or the I’m-not-good-enough feeling, while fruitlessly scanning the cast list after a school play audition. Or the feeling of self-doubt that descends when a new haircut loses its sheen in the wake of a backhanded compliment. It’s not easy being a girl.

Girls on the Run, a program for eight-to-13-year-old girls, strives to combat the social pressures of the pre-teen years. In twice weekly meetings over the course of two months, the girls train for a 5K running event while also participating in lessons that encourage team work, good health habits, self-esteem, and an overall sense of identity. Started in North Carolina in 1996 by Molly Barker, a four-time Hawaii Ironman triathlete and former high school teacher and track coach, the program is now offered in 45 states and the District of Columbia, as well as two Canadian provinces.

The idea for GOTR grew out of Barker’s own experience. She started running as a teenager and found the sport a reprieve from what’s known as “the girl box” in GOTR lingo. “The girl box” is the theoretical place where young girls start to drift away from their own identity and toward social expectations for appearance and behavior. Barker developed the GOTR curriculum with the intention of creating a safe, fun environment where girls can be themselves and acquire tools for maintaining their identity through those tough years when peer pressure and self consciousness loom large.

“When young girls are put in a comfortable environment where they feel safe and encouraged, they thrive,” says Nancy Heydinger, executive director of Girls on the Run Vermont, who brought the program to the Green Mountains after hearing about it in 1999 at a women’s sports conference in Washington, D.C.

When Heydinger learned about GOTR, the program’s mission resonated immediately. As a girls’ basketball coach and the mother of two daughters, she was no stranger to the heavy social pressure that young women face to fit in and be pretty and cool. And she could remember the burden from her own childhood as well.

“Girls get all these messages about who they should be, what they should be, how they should act, what they should look like, and what they should wear. They turn on themselves and morph into what others want them to be, instead of who they really are,” explains Heydinger. “Girls on the Run was developed to help girls with all that – to help them be strong and confident in themselves.”

When Heydinger started Vermont’s first Girls on the Run group, she coached all 15 of the state’s participants, including her two daughters. Since then, the program has expanded to over 100 sites across Vermont, with 2,300 girls participating in the 2011 season. And interest is still growing.
“The only limiting factor is finding volunteer coaches,” Heydinger says, noting that over 260 new coaches started last year due to increased demand, and she’s currently recruiting more. Many of GOTR’s coaches are teachers, principals, nurses, parents and other community members from a range of professions and backgrounds. Coaches don’t have to be runners, Heydinger stresses. Ultimately what GOTR is looking for are “role models, mentors, and people who care about the well-being of our girls.”

In return, GOTR offers its coaches a well-organized program and a commitment to preparation and guidance. “This organization supports its coaches not only by providing thorough training and a well-laid-out curriculum, but they are also determined to make the program consistently high quality,” says Elizabeth Catlin, who has coached in Dummerston for the last two seasons and recently joined GOTR’s board.

Coaches undergo a five-hour training session, plus CPR and first-aid certification. When the season is underway, coaches lead two group meetings per week, each lasting about ninety minutes. During these meetings, coaches share lessons from a three-part curriculum over the course of two months, focusing first on the girl herself, then on teamwork, and finally on community, which includes a service project.

Lessons are presented through games and tasks, usually incorporating physical activity. In a lesson focused on nutrition, the girls examine their dietary choices while participating in a relay-style workout where they are sorting the food they’ve eaten that day into various food groups. Another lesson tackles gossip, and gets the girls thinking about the irrevocable nature of spreading rumors as they toss around a ball of string and observing the tangled web it creates.
“They’re moving and they’re learning and they’re having fun – so they’re not really thinking about the running,” says Heydinger, who coached for several years before taking on the executive director role with GOTR. Under her leadership, the program has reached more than 15,000 girls around Vermont.

Whether or not the girls are thinking about the running, they’re getting some exercise and gaining the physical and mental wherewithal to participate in the end-of-season 5K running event. GOTR groups from around Vermont gather for the non-competitive run, along with their families and friends. In matching tee-shirts decorated with personal touches, they toe the line with goals in mind and their teammates around them, their confidence reinforced by weeks of preparation and the energy of hundreds of girls ready to run. Some will run the full distance, others will walk, but all are celebrated at the finish line for their successful completion of the program.

The fact that girls of all ages are grouped together is a strength of the program, according to Catlin. When her own daughter Lila Flynn first started, she was one of only two third graders. “It was fun to get to know some of the older kids,” says Flynn, now 11 and starting sixth grade, with three seasons of GOTR under her belt. Now one of the “older kids,” Flynn is a stronger and more confident runner. She’s also familiar with the curriculum and knows just what to expect from the lessons. With this kind of veteran status, she is able to take on more of a leadership role within her group, welcoming the younger girls and weighing in when the group is considering new tasks and games.

In addition to the age spectrum, groups benefit from the range of the girls’ strengths, weaknesses, and levels of enthusiasm. Catlin recalled one girl on her team who excelled as an athlete, but struggled to see herself as part of a team. For some other kids, it can be a challenge to get them up and moving; they resist the physical strain of running. Coaches are tasked with bringing together these various personalities and attributes, and helping the team realize the value of individual differences and work cooperatively to complete tasks.

For Catlin, this has been among the most eye-opening – and rewarding – aspects of coaching. “The benefits of the program express differently in every single girl,” she remarks. “It works its way into each girl the way it needs to.”

Alyssa Vine is a freelance writer in New York City (who began her career as a Vermont Woman intern!)