Elon team completes Girls on the Run

By Laura Clark

Published: May 14, 2008

Maya Horsley, 8, kept a steady pace down the Blackwater Creek Trail, her red bandana slipping from her hair. Honeysuckle wafted through the humid May air as we ran under the canopy, and Maya turned to me with a grin.

“I love Girls on the Run,” she said.

Maya had changed a lot as a runner since we did a practice 5K in early April. That afternoon, she and her nine teammates from the Elon Elementary School team ran a loop behind the school. Maya and her cousin, Alexis Meade, also a third grader, had to be coaxed and prodded to mix a little running with a lot of walking. The girls talked of ice cream and softball, hurt feet and dogs.

This time when we passed a big brown Labrador, Maya commented on it, but didn’t stop. She was determined to run as much of the Wondergirl celebration 5K as she could.

“You can all do something. You can skip. You can hop. You can jump. You can walk. You can run. As long as you keep on moving,” Maya said of coach Lesley McPhatter’s advice.

She also shared other things she’d learned, like that it’s okay for girls to sweat, and running after drinking too much water can make you barf. We walked only briefly, and this time it was Maya who said, “Let’s run again when we get to that tractor.”

Her time and place were irrelevant in this event, though Maya was proud to be the second Elon girl to finish. She crowded near the finish line to welcome in her teammates.

Maya’s mother, Joan Wayne-Horsley ran across the line with third grader Lexi Allcock. All 10 of the girls who started the program in February finished the race in Lynchburg May 10. Wayne-Horsley was one of the co-coaches with McPhatter, Wendy Golden, Caroline Heppner and Ashton Ogden. It was the first year for the international program to come to Amherst County. Central Elementary also had a team of 22 girls. It was the first time many of these girls had tried running.

“They learn they can do something,” Wayne-Horsley said. “It might take them a little bit longer than another. All the girls can do it. Whatever they start they can finish.”

The program goes deeper than running, aiming to teach the girls about the decisions they make, dealing with feelings they have and treating others with respect while expecting the same, said regional coordinator Mary Hansen.

“Running is the tool that we use,” she said.

Twice a week the teams met after school, and each session began with a lesson dealing with subjects like listening, cooperation, bullying and gossiping, the one that Maya remembers best.

“Gossiping is not good,” she said. “So if you gossip, you really shouldn’t. You should not be in that person’s business.”

The girls were encouraged to think about the lesson as they ran, stopping after laps to fill out worksheets, and then going over their answers as they stretched at the end of practice. The practice closed with the group nominating a couple girls for awards for encouraging each other or practicing hard. They celebrated with the dead bug wiggle or surfer girl dance. Then a closing cheer: “Girls on the Run is so much fun! Girls on the Run is number one!”

The families involved with the non-profit program indirectly benefited, too. Each Elon girl was paired with a friend or family member for the celebration run, and some of the adults ran a 5K for the first time.

McPhatter’s daughter, Kendall Branham, 10, was joined in running throughout the season by her little sister, Caroline, 6. A runner herself, McPhatter said her daughters talk about running together this summer.

“I think exercise is so important, and from a family standpoint, if it’s something that can bring you together, give you time to talk…all these training runs, that’s what we’ve done,” she said.

Wayne-Horsley let the other coaches work with Maya, as she said she has a tendency to jump in to help too often. She has been amazed at the way Maya blossomed through Girls on the Run. Maya and another little girl used to fuss at each other in class a lot. Now they’re like best friends.

“I wanted her to get some interaction with other girls,” Wayne-Horsley said. “They learned how to get along and work with each other. This program taught them that everybody’s different, everybody’s got different ways.

“She’s talking and trying things. She’s normally right here on my leg, and she’s grown up to be a big girl,” she said, gesturing to Maya, who proved she still had plenty of energy Saturday and was right in the mix with her teammates, dancing along to the “Cha-Cha Slide.”