A practice and a race

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."
- Tom Fleming's Boston Marathon training sign on his wall

In honor of the Boston Marathon happening today, my blog will be about Racing.

A quick side-Last Thursday we had a great practice. I find the girls are getting better at listening to other coaches and there is just something alarmlingly focused in their drive to run hard during practice. Even my most questionable of girls that gets very down on herself or just wants to argue and not run but instead socialize -They all did amazing. And I admit that while not perfect the girls did an amazing job of creating a thunderstorm. At least I thought it was cool.

Sunday the school was having a 5k fun run type of fund raiser. I have really become quite fond of the school and its staff and the families. I promised the girls I would run in it and then realized it is also my daughter's 7th birthday! I was at ends trying to figure out how to deal with this because I didn't want to miss any part of her birthday for this event but I also didn't want to miss the event. So the compromise is that my daughter ran with her father for the 5k. She talked about it for weeks, how it would be so neat to run in the race at the school.

Let me tell you how I know my daughter is part me! Saturday I had to take her to see a Dr in emergency like fashion because she had an abscess on the back of her calf that looked really infected and was causing her a bit of pain (plus it sort of exploded goo at me which made me freak!). The first thing she asked the Dr after he cleaned it all up and gave her meds was, "Can I still run in the race tomorrow?". I love that my kid's priorities are to run!

So Sunday morning a large part of my team actually came to the event. I don't know how many would have come normally but I think the promise of Coach Jillianne to come out there and run as fast as she could got them all excited. And let me tell you, I ran as hard as I could for those kids. And I haven't run in a 5k race in almost 10 years...10 YEARS!!!!! I mean I guess I have run in 5k's in the past 10 years but I always was more social, never really running as fast as I could, never caring about my time or my performance.

And I remind you of the power of a child! Those kids infected me with so much excited, including seeing my own little mini-me coming out to run that I was off like lightening. I honestly didn't care about where I placed but that I wanted to show these kids what hard work can get you.

But the other promise-I wanted to cheer each and every one of them across the finish line. I almost missed my first girl because she was literally 3 minutes behind me! Seriously, that kids was crazy fast.

And I got to cheer on every single girl as she came dashing across the line and the huge smile on their faces said it all, how proud they were to show off. Girls on the Run 5k is not a race, its an event to celebrate the accomplishment that these girls have in working hard to acheive their goal. Its a community effort to get the kids together and celebrated with hundreds of others what is possible when you work hard.

But yesterday was a race and let me tell you, those kids did amazing.

And my doubts for any of the kids to not be able to finish the 5k this spring were wiped away. I have had a few both seasons I coached that I was afraid wouldn't finish the race. It is a horrible feeling that you have to hide that you don't want to cause fear in kids.

And obviously I can't always talk about all the details but in the past two weeks some of my greatest fears have subsided for my current team as I have seen pretty much every single person on my team now complete a 5k.

And my favorite moment was when my daughter and all the girls from the team came to the finish line to cheer on the last team mate to complete the race. I am a big sappy coach that had tears in my eyes as I watched these kids screaming their team mate's name and cheering her on to the finish. Better yet, was that the crowd behind us realized what was happening and everything stopped for a minute while everyone cheered this one little girl on to the finish. I don't know what was better, being that one little girl that had the largest cheering squad known to man to watch her come across the finish line-or being one of the parents of those girls that came out to cheer on a team mate. From either side, it was an amazing thing.

It was a perfect moment as a coach, parent, and runner that I could ask for. No win in my entire life has ever made me feel as good as this moment. This is why I love coaching these kids. I hate sometimes that for the children's privacy I can't write up names or certain things. I agree with this practice. However, to each and every one of those girls that came out and cheered each other on, ran their hearts out, and completed that 5k, you made me so proud. And I love that you all put your differences to the side and really showed what a team like Girls on the Run is all about and the power that you all have to make a difference.