Do you know that 3.1 Miles is the same as 5 Kilometers? I didn’t, at least not until I joined Girls On The Run. Never heard of it? Well maybe it’s time you do! First off – if you don’t know what a mile is, it is a measure of distance… if you’ve ever walked around a track at a football field 4 times, you have walked a mile. Distance can also be measured in Kilometers. There are three things I want you to know about Kilometers. First, if you don’t want to write out the whole word Kilometer – since it is really long – you can abbreviate it by using just the capital letter K. Second, Kilometers are shorter than miles. (1 Mile is the same as 1.6 Kilometers) Third, lot’s of people who like to run participate in 5Ks. A 5K is an event when a bunch of people get together to run a race that is 5 Kilometers long. If you think that sounds a lot like what a marathon is – you’re right! It’s just a lot shorter. A marathon is more than 26 miles – a 5K is just about 3.1 miles long. Now that we’ve covered all that, I suppose it’s time to tell you more about Girls On The Run. Let’s start with the basics.
Number 1 – Girls On The Run is a lot to say (kind of like Kilometers is a long word to write) – so when I talk or write about it, a lot of the time I call it GOTRs. G.O.T.R. is an acronym – an acronym is a way to abbreviate a name or phrase where you take the first letter of each word in the phrase and combine them to together to make a new word to say the same thing – So Girls On The Run – becomes GOTR… I add an S ’cause it sounds better)
Number 2 – GOTRs is an after school program where girls get together twice a week to run, have fun and learn to be confident. The first time I signed up was in 3rd grade at the beginning of school. The second time I signed up was also in 3rd grade – because I had so much fun the first time, I wanted to do it again at the end of the year.
One reason it’s fun is that you get lot’s of exercise. Another reason it’s fun is that even though when you start you may not know anyone else, once you start doing it, you have lots of time to become friends with the other girls. A third reason I like it, is that since they tell all of us how important it is to encourage each other and help each other– everybody that is there is nice! They also tell us how important it is that we try our best at everything we do …and tell us that with the right attitude and effort, we have chance to do anything we can think of…like be a teacher, coach, scientist, doctor, mother …OR a really great runner! One of the coolest things we get to do is find out how good a runner we are when we have our own 5K at the end of the season.
So, I bet you’d like to know a little bit more about our 5K. Like I said, at the end of the season, all the girls from all the different age groups 3rd grade up to 8th run a 5K together. Before we run we all stretch and warm up while listening to music over loudspeakers –it’s like a big dance party. Then they we run the 5K (3.1 miles) with a start and finish line and you get to see how much time it took you to run on a big clock at the end of the run. One time I ran in a tutu we made out of scarves they gave out during the season…the 2nd time I wore a cape. Anyway – I really enjoyed the exercise and being able to be with my new friends, but I think my favorite part was learning that I could run a 5K if I just put my mind to it! I can’t wait until the next season. Maybe I’ll see you out there!
TTFN – (that’s an acronym for Ta Ta for Now)
MsSS. (Ms. Smarty Skirt)
Abbreviation – a shortened form of a word or phrase.
Acronym – an abbreviation formed from the first letters of other words and pronounced as a word
Kilometer – a unit of length in the metric system which is used in many places outside of the United States.
Mile – a distance equal to 5,280 feet
Tutu – A short, full skirt
Fun Fact: When my Dad is cheering for me when I run he sings GO GO GOTRs? to a song from an old cartoon!