Happy Spring and Welcome Back!!!

Welcome back! We missed you and the smiling faces of the girls. We hope you had a great Spring Break, full of fun and of course - some running. Can you believe we are halfway through the Spring Session of GOTR? Time flies when you are having fun and working hard. The girls have been working on building their endurance and learning some new things along the way.

Here is a brief summary of what we've been up to!

We started out the session welcoming 2 new girls to our GOTR veterans, Erin's big sister, Megan and Claire. The girls have fit right in with the rest of our merry band of runners. We reviewed the GOTR promises, which the girls should have brought home for your review and signature. We also talked about making positive changes, healthy eating and constructive ways to express our feelings. There have been plenty of fun games along the way from relay races to the "Skin the Snake" game. Ask the girls to demonstrate this game for you, sort of like "Twister".

The girls really enjoyed the lesson on cooperation, which required listening and group cooperation to get the girls from one side of a jump rope the coaches turned, to the other; without touching the rope. Their was a lot of laughter, discussion and -cooperation!

The girls have done a great job, increasing the number of laps, building on each lesson. You can't do all of that running without proper snacks and hydration (water bottles please). So, if you stop by and see us "going bananas", then you must be watching our new cheer, "Go Bananas", sometimes done with our Tuesday snack-you guessed it-Bananas!

GOTR is thrilled to announce that Secret Deodorant is sponsoring the first ever essay contest for Girls on the Run/Track . Can your daughter express how GOTR has helped her to be more fearless? If so, please have her complete an entry form for the essay contest. We will email the details and entry forms from Girls on the Run Intenational. We encourage all interested girls to enter the contest . Ten winners from across the country will each receive $500 and their ten respective councils will each receive a donation of $3,500 from Secret! Woudn't it be great if someone from the Montgomery County GOTR won the contest? Deadline for entry is May 1.

Race day is May 16 and it is fast approaching! We will focus on building endurance by adding more miles. Join us Tues and/or Friday and run a few laps with us! The girls love it when you come out and huff and puff around the field, just like they do.

While the girls have been learning new things and building endurance, the coaches have been busy as well. Here's what we've been up to:

• Coach Bill had the honor of playing the bagpipes for President Obama at an event for St. Patricks' Day.


• Coach Connie accomplished a major goal and ran her first Marathon, the National Capital Marathon. Coach Tanya ran the Half-Marathon.


• Both Coach Connie and Coach Tanya ran the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, with both coaches posting personal records.

We live what we preach...You don't have to run fast, you just have to run.

Thank you for returning the health forms, we know completing paperwork isn't fun. We appreciate your cooperation. We can't wait to see the girls tomorrow and head into the home stretch of the Spring GOTR session. Come out and join us!

PS .... Don't forget to send water bottles with the girls to each practice!