Emma Hecht
4th grade, St. Mary's School
Entry 1
I can't quite explain how I feel. It is a mixture of nervousness and excitement. I am excited because I love to run and I want to learn more things about me. I am nervous because I don't know if the things I discover will be good or bad. My teacher will be the coach. She is a good teacher and she loves to run, so she will probably be a good coach. Some of the girls from my class are doing it so I am starting out with friends. Last period, my sister did it and I kind of got the feel of it. Plus, I have already run a few 5Ks. I am fast and I want to gain speed, but I also want to build endurance and get to know the me I don't know.
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Entry 2
Today I had my first GOTR practice. After school, my teacher got all the girls together and split us into two groups. I was really excited. It was snowing, so we quickly grabbed our water bottles and headed to the church basement sine we couldn't run in the classroom or willingly run in the snow. First we learned our teammates names and then we did a "quiz-run." The quiz run went like this: Coach would ask a question, if the answer was yes we would run down the hall and back; if it was no we would stay where we were. The answers varied for different people because the questions were things like "Do you like basketball?' We took a water break and stretched. When we were all loosened up, we took labels with everyone's name and ran around the basement. If we passed someone, we would find their name and stick their label on them. It was so much fun. We ran 13 more laps and it was time to go. Everyone was sweating. Kate was the pop-up girl. She got in the middle and everyone put their hands on top of her head. We said "Girls on the Run is so much fun!" On "fun" Kate popped up. I had a great first day of GOTR.
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Entry 3
After school, we met again. First we filled out four cards of negative things that we did or saw others do. Next, we played a game to warm-up and then headed outside. We ran four laps around the parking lot; each time, dropping one of our negative cards. Megan and I ran together for all four laps. We stopped to write down positive alternatives to the things on our negative cards. Ms. Goodhard had us run six laps but I stopped after the fifth to go to the bathroom. When I got back Megan had already finished her six laps, but she promised to be a dedicated partner so she ran another lap with me. Most of the other girls were already done and found it extremely amusing to dump leftover ice down each others’ hot shirts. I was the unlucky victim of one huge block of ice - a completely wet and cold block of ice! I went home happy.
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Entry 4
At first, I wasn't sure if we were going to have GOTR because Ms. Goodhard wasn't at school. A sub came and it took her a little while to figure out what we were supposed to do. When we got outside to run laps, all the girls were really wild from being cooped up inside a building all day long. This is what happened. Before we went outside, we wrote down four things we ate in the last 48 hours on four separate index cards. We had to run five laps. The first four laps we each dropped off an index card. The last lap we each picked up a card someone else had written on. Mine said "drink milk" but some said "eat candy." The point of the exercise was to see if we were eating healthy foods or not. We walked one more lap and then were done. I'm looking forward to next week.
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Entry 5
On Thursday, things went really fast. First, we ate our snack like we always do. Then, we headed outside to do a relay race. The race involved running down to Ms. Goodhard, listening to a question, and then writing down the answer. After that, we ran laps. This time we ran eight laps. After every lap we would cross out an emotion on an orange sheet of paper. At the last practice, we talked about being physically healthy, but this time we talked about emotions. Being emotionally healthy is being happy and comfortable. It can be hard to tell if people are emotionally healthy from how they look. Sometimes, you can tell better by their actions. Girls on the Run is fun and educational.
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Entry 6
Today we learned about values and important things. Values are important things, but you can’t touch them. A value can be a certain belief, or something like being good or doing well in school. Important things are simply things that mean a lot to you. Important things could be your parents, siblings, close friends, or pets.
Outside, the air was moist and there were puddles everywhere. We had to run inside, although it was nice outside. When I say nice, I mean the temperature was warm and the water vapor in the air would have cooled off a hot runner. I don’t mean the puddles and rain clouds were nice (they made pretty much everything seem gloomy). When we got to church building, we ran for what seemed like hours. I had friends to run with and we talked, laughed, and ran for 30 minutes. Then we ended our day with a stretch and a few goodbyes.
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Entry 7
We ate our snack, filled our water bottles, and waited for instructions. For the first game, everyone got a piece of paper and was told to stand on it. The point was to move from paper to paper without touching the ground. It required a lot of cooperation and teamwork, which is what made it so hard. Then, we finished off our snacks and headed outside to play another game. For the other game we divided into three teams and went to different locations. We had to run down to Mrs. Goodhard, listen to a word that she said, run back, and draw it on a piece of paper, wait for everyone to try to guess what it was, then have the process repeated by the next person in line. Finally, we stretched and ran. We had to run 5 laps and one cool down lap (or in my case 2 cool down laps) before we were finished. It seemed like the shortest practice ever!
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Entry 8
On Thursday, we learned about cooperating with others and listening. We played a game called “hotchimama.” First, we would stand in a circle with our eyes closed and Miss Goodhard would pick a hotchimama. Then, we would go around shaking other people’s hands and ask them “hotchimama?” If they were the hotchimama they wouldn’t say anything, but if they weren’t they would reply “hotchimama!” We played that three times, stretched, and ran. We got to pick how many laps we wanted to run as long as it was over five. Megan and I ran together again. We were only going to run five because we had soccer after it, but Miss Goodhard made us do seven because she knew we could run a lot. I had to leave a little early because of soccer, but it was over anyway. GOTR was pretty fun.
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Entry 9
We got to the classroom pretty late. We didn’t have much time, but we had a lot of things to do. First, we ate our snack and played a game called track telephone. It was like the game telephone, but we went around the track to tell the phrase to the next person. It tied in with what we were talking about: gossip. We played track telephone as an example to show how gossip is changed when passed from person to person. Then we did a scavenger hunt. We had to 1. Find three leaves, 2. run two laps, 3. skip one lap, 4. find something blue, 5. find something useless, 6. run two more laps, then do 10 jumps on a jump rope and do a cheer for the coaches. We talked a little more about gossip. We got together for the girls-on-the-run cheer and sprint awards. Then we left.
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Entry 10
Even before the practice, I could sense it would be a good one. We all ate pretzels for our snack and played a game. The day was all about just having fun. For laps, we had to do at least five because every lap we would have one nail painted. When we got six fingernails painted, we had to do at least one more lap and then Miss Goodhard would go ahead and paint the rest of our nails. I didn’t get my nails painted because my fingernails were already painted. My toes were an option though, so I left with no socks or shoes on and purple toenails attached to my feet instead. My sister had orange toenails and blue fingers because she couldn’t get her fingers repainted. Girls on the Run was over before I knew it.
Entry 11
First, we ate and stretched. We played a game that involved cooperation again. Someone would start with a ball held in their arm with their elbow bent and would try to pass it down the line from person to person only with their elbow. Then, we tried to do it by tucking it under our chins and assign it down the line. When we finished, we talked about things you can say when someone hurts your feelings and you want them to stop: I feel… when you… because…I would like you to… For example, I feel angry when you tease me because it hurts my feelings. I would like you to stop teasing me. Finally, we ran. At least seven laps were required and after we ran each one we would collect a statement that would start with a I feel, when you, because, I would like you to. When we had collected all seven, we could try to put them together and make sense of them. It was hard because hardly anyone found an I would like you to. The result: two sentences that actually included every statement required. The day was over, so we all stretched again and then left practice.
We had to work quickly because we wanted to try to beat the rain. Also, we were supposed to do our practice 5K since the real 5K at the Bristol Motor Speedway is almost here. Ten laps around our track equals three miles. We timed ourselves on the stopwatch on Miss Goodhard’s phone. My time was about 9 seconds under 30 minutes. It was my best time yet. I am really excited because the real race is coming up. All of the training, running and practice is paying off. We all left happy, tired, and wet.
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Race Day
On race day, I woke up twice, the first time because I was really excited and jumpy, and so it took me a while to convince myself to go back to sleep since I knew that was best for me. The second time I woke up because it was time to wake up. When my family arrived at the Bristol Motor Speedway, I started to recall memories of previous 5Ks that I ran in preparation for this day. There was face-painting, hair-dying, and a huge table overloaded with accessories from Goody as part of the festivities. All the girls came away with a few gifts. A friend of mine had a big, blue, GOTR painted across her forehead.
At last, we were going to run, but not without a stretch. For once in my life, I wanted to race ahead and not take my time to stretch and linger. “On with the race!” a voice in my head chanted. “On with the race. On with the race.” I took a place in the front next to my best friend. “GO!” someone screamed. Megan and I took off with me a little bit ahead because I sprinted. She caught up as I slowed down for her. We ran hard, almost non-stop. We finished strongly with a sprint. Like we promised, we finished at exactly the same time - 29 minutes and 51 seconds. I waited at an arranged meeting spot for the rest of my family. When they came, we all left thinking the same thing - this was most definitely a time to remember.
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