Girls on the Run

Saturday morning we pulled into our parking space at 6:20am. Vasona Lake was right in view as was a steady stream of young ladies and adults walking toward the race day activity centers.The sun was just coming up and the lake had a glitter surface. Fitting for a day all about girls.

"Mom, are you crying?" Haley asked.
"Yes, a little bit," I replied
"Why?"
"Because I'm happy."

A couple of months ago Haley joined Girls on the Run. It is an after school program that meets twice a week. During their time together they run and do activities that boost the ideas of confidence, teamwork, compassion, and strength. The end goal is to run in a big 5k event. Each runner gets to pick a run partner for the race and Haley asked if I would do it with her.

And here we were. It was race day and I was with my 9 year old daughter and we were about to run 3.1 miles together along with thousands of others. My answer to my tears was, "because I am happy" but what I could have said was...

"Haley I am crying because I am happy. I am happy because I am out here with you, my beautiful daughter. I am happy because we get to start off our day doing something good for ourselves. I am happy because we are connected. I am happy because we are healthy and both have bodies that enable us to do things like this. I am happy anytime I get time with just you. I am happy because we live here, where we can have a morning running along trees and a lake. I am happy because you chose me as your run buddy. I am happy because this whole event is about letting you know that you are empowered. I am happy because having a daughter was a dream and you have made it a gorgeous reality. I am happy you are here. I am happy I am here."

Haley and I were both excited at the start line. She was in charge of our pace as I told her I would follow her lead. She would set little goals like, "we can walk when we get to that tree" or "let's push ourselves to not stop until we see the next mile marker." She also said at one point, "Mom, this is harder than I thought it would be!" It opened up a chat about pushing ourselves and how it feels very accomplished to complete something when it isn't easy.

The last 1/10 of a mile, the sides were filled with cheering supporters. Haley was tired and we hadn't taken a rest for over a mile. She saw and heard the crowd and used that energy to cross the finish line.

If you asked her her favorite part of the race she would say, "crossing the finish line."

If you asked me my favorite part of the race I'd say, "sharing that special experience with my radiant daughter."