You Go, Girl!

This fall, Maggie has been part of an after-school club called Girls on the Run. It’s an empowering program where they learn about encouraging each other, standing up to bullies, asserting themselves, supporting other women, and in the midst they train for a 5K.

Saturday was the state-wide event (luckily held in Durango so we didn’t have to travel) where sooooo many 3rd-5th graders gathered (buzzed, flitted, cartwheeled, and twittered) around with parents and siblings and grandparents and friends and sponsors and coaches.
Then we ran! Maggie let me run with her and a friend, occasionally holding up my phone blaring some jams, punching them when I saw a slug bug (I didn’t say “no tag-backs” but they had to catch me!), listening to them proudly kvetch about how much work this was!

They decided together that their first goal was to finish; secondarily they wanted to do so between 40 and 50 minutes. And although they didn’t say it out loud, they also wanted to cheer on as many people as they could reach. Everyone we passed got a “good job!” or a high-five or an “aye Chihuahua” (part of a cheer they learned from their coaches — inside joke I guess).

And they finished at just over 45 minutes! But more importantly, with really big smiles! They were very proud.

To celebrate, we went to have frozen yogurt afterward. I asked Maggie if her treat tasted good. She answered, “It tastes like victory!”