GOTR

This fall Mary Grace participated in Girls On The Run.

I have to say, hands down, it is the BEST program (made even better by her incredible coaches!) Twice a week her GOTR team met and learned lessons on teamwork, self confidence, leadership (and a variety of other topics), and then they trained to run a 5K.

A few weeks before the real race, the girls did a practice 5K.

And then on December 3rd we ran the Gingersnap 5K.

Of course it was the first cold morning of the season- and it was REALLY cold!

Mary Grace's GOTR team.

Overall the race went really well. Our team started toward the back so it was a little tough to get past the walkers on a narrow course. We spent the first mile having to zig zag in and out of crowds and change our pace a lot. I'm not even a runner, but I was really annoyed by the starting and stopping. But our second mile was awesome. Mary Grace got some water after the turn and ended up with a cramp in the 3rd mile. I was really proud of her though, although she slowed down significantly, she kept moving. Our bib times were just over 36 minutes. Her practice times were much faster, and she was a little disappointed. However, I just told her that gives us lots of room to improve in the next race. And hopefully the next one we run won't be quite as congested for the first mile.

Such a fun season!