The Girls on the Run and Girls on Track curricula are divided into three parts:

  • Part One: Understanding themselves and setting personal goals
  • Part Two: Learning skills to foster leadership, team building and cooperation
  • Part Three: Examining their relationship to the community, including development and implementation of a community service project

Each lesson focuses on a specific related topic and follows a five part format that provides consistency and structure for the girl’s experience:

  • Introduction/Getting On Board: The session begins with a getting-on-board and a warm-up activity that bring the girls’ focus onto the day’s topic.
  • The Warm-up: is followed by a stretching routine that allows for a topic-related question and answer time.
  • The Workout: Then, during the workout period, the girls participate in a variety of running activities that utilize a game or a team goal.
  • Processing: Afterwards, cool-down stretching is combined with a review and discussion of the day’s lesson that encourages participant questions.
  • The Wrap-up: Each session closes with positive words from the girls’ coach regarding individual and group behaviors.

The principal philosophies and psychological research for both programs are the same, yet the depth of processing the topics varies with the two different curricula. Coaches can facilitate more targeted and age-appropriate discussion regarding certain topics (eating disorders, tobacco and alcohol use, personal/internet safety and harassment to name a few) with the middle school participants, whereas with the younger girls the discussion remains a bit more vague or may not occur at all.

The season concludes with participation in a 5K run. We participate in our very own running event, The Girls on the Run 5K, in both Fall and Spring. These are great events that celebrate the girls’ accomplishments and participation in Girls on the Run!