When I was in 4th grade in Springfield, Virginia, my mom’s friend brought GOTR to my school. My mom signed my sister and I up, much to my dismay. If running during soccer practice wasn’t my thing, this surely wouldn’t be either. Even though I was always last during practice, I mostly remember all of the fun lessons and games we did and how I met more girls from my school that I didn’t know yet. I sprinted/walked the 5k (pacing is not a thing for kids) and had so much fun, I even met the GOTR founder! As a kid, my family continued to sign up for a couple charity 5ks to honor friends and family. Running and I never became friends but fast forward over 15 years later and I helped bring GOTR to the school that I teach 4th grade at. Our first season, I was determined to run the 5k with our girls and used the coach to 5k app to train on my own after practices. After that 5k, I was so inspired to keep going that I kept signing up for my own races and am now completing my first Broad Street Run this weekend and training for a half marathon. This is my third season coaching and seeing the excitement and accomplishment on our girls’ faces brings me more joy then they’ll ever know. Being a coach has meant even more to me than being a participant did and it is because of GOTR that I am a runner today!
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Photo credit: Image courtesy of the storyteller.