By Kaitlan Morehouse
The weather is getting warmer, and the days are getting nicer! Spend a beautiful one in mid-May running the ZAP Fitness Girls on the Run 5K at Boone Greenway Trail (in Clawson-Burnley Park near the Complex Drive off of Hunting Hills Lane).
Girls on the Run of the High Country (GOTR-HC) asks that you RUN, WALK, SKIP, HOP … Just MOVE FORWARD while enjoying the race.
The ZAP Fitness GOTR 5K will conclude the 12-week GOTR curriculum.
The noncompetitive 5K will be open to the public and current and past GOTR participants, coaches and their families.
Registration is included in program fees for current participants and coaches. Any other runners can register between noon and 1:30 p.m. on race day.
“If people are tinkering with the idea to walk or run a 5k, it’s a great way to find out,” said Mary Sheryl Horine, director of GOTR-HC.
You can register at http://gotr.appstate.edu/5K.
Registration will be $20, and T-shirts will be available on a first come, first served basis. Cash and checks will be accepted. Proceeds will go to the GOTR scholarship fund.
You will be running on the loop of paved trail and grass with no road crossings.
ZAP Fitness GOTR-HC prioritizes safety and will have volunteers on hand to ensure the race is a celebration for everyone.
Dogs and strollers will not be allowed due to the narrowness of the Greenway.
Early arrival is suggested, but there will be plenty of free parking at the race venue. There will be warm-up activities for the entire family at that time.
The schedule of events will be as follows:
- Race Village will open at noon, which will have happy hair and creative photo stations.
- Pre-race warm-ups will begin at 12:30 p.m.
- Team Line-ups will start at 1:30 p.m.
- Announcements from GOTR-HC Director and National Anthem will start at 1:45 p.m.
- Team parade will start at 1:55 p.m.
- Race will start at 2 p.m.
- Hospitality vendor’s table will open in the Race Village at 2:15 p.m.
- Race Village will close at 4 p.m.
ZAP Fitness-Reebok will be the presenting sponsor. For a complete list of sponsors, go here.
For more information, visit gotr.appstate.edu/5K or email horinems@appstate.edu.
About GOTR – International
GOTR in a nonprofit organization that helps girls achieve their limitless potential and pursue their dreams.
The girls meet every week, cover topics and lessons and have some kind of physical activity, taught by GOTR coaches.
Girls on the Run strives to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident, using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.
The organization believes that every girl can embrace who she is, can define who she wants to be, can rise to any challenge, can change the world, can do anything.
It envisions a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to bold pursue her dreams.
It has six core values:
- Recognize the power and responsibility to be intentional in our decision making
- Embrace the differences and find strength in the connectedness
- Express joy, optimism and gratitude through the words, thoughts and actions
- Nurture the physical, emotional and spiritual health
- Lead with an open heart and assume positive intent
- Stand up for themselves and others
Established in 1996 in Charlotte, North Carolina with thirteen girls, the organization grew to 26 girls the next season, 75 in 2000 and are now nonprofit and international status.
There are now 225 council across the United States and Canada with over 98,000 volunteers.
After GOTR hosted 350 end-of-season 5K events around the US, it officially became the largest GOTR 5K series in the country.
GOTR is a 10- to 12-week after school program for 3rd through 5th grade girls. Read more about the program here.
GOTR recently launched a middle school program called “Heart & Sole,” dedicated to the unique needs of adolescent girls. Unlike the 10- to 12-week, 3rd through 5th grade program, the 6th through 8th grade program is 10 weeks and available to every girl — no matter her fitness level or athletic ability
The nonprofit has been featured in several national media outlets:
- People
- Runner’s World
- Redbook
- Women’s Day
- O Magazine
- Women’s Running
- SELF Magazine
- Glamour
- Shape
- Marie Claire
- Parenting
- Running Times
- CNN
- MSNBC
- ABC News
- NBC News
- NPR
- ESPN
- FOX Sports.
Its national partners include:
- Athleta
- Cigna
- FOX Sport Supports
- Gamma Phi Beta
- SmartWool
The organization credits the success of the program to the girls.
About GOTR – HC
An Affiliate of GOTR International that was established in 2009, Girls on the Run of the High Country is a transformational physical activity and positive youth development program for girls in 3rd-8th grades in Watauga, Ashe, Wilkes and Avery counties.
The program, which runs twice a year, helps the girls make sure they are physically and emotionally ready to complete a celebratory 5K running event.
Your local chapter meets twice a week for 12 weeks. Each of the 24 classes teaches lots of different topics throughout the program. The program strives to improve communication, among other things, for the girls. In addition to the topics, the physical activity component is checked off every day. After the classes are over, the girls participate in the 5K together.
Through this program, the girls gain lots of skills in communication, a basic understanding of what health is all about, gain confidence, set short term goals as a group and support each other to reach them and plan and execute a community intact project.
The program strives to unleash confidence through accomplishments while establishing a lifetime of health and fitness.
“It’s really getting many of the girls in the High Country the tools they need to lead a healthy and confident life,” Horine said.
The ASU Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC Institute for Health and Human Services within the Beaver College of Health Sciences is the affiliate sponsor for GOTR.
“We have a great collaboration between students who help out,” Horine said.
If you would like to help out, you can volunteer for the program as a coach or to help out with the 5K run.
About ZAP Fitness – Reebok
Established in 2001, ZAP Fitness Foundation is a nonprofit training center for post-collegiate, Olympic-hopeful, distance runners.
Foundation objectives:
- Financially support 8-10 post-collegiate distance runners in their efforts to make World Championships and Olympic Teams
- Develop the physical talent necessary for success in a competitive environment
- Teach mental and emotional skills necessary for success in a competitive environment
- Develop individual professional skills for benefit in post-competitive environment
- Provide role models for America’s youth by promoting an active healthy lifestyle, as well as promote achievement
- Provide an environment for achievement in running for all levels of runners
Team ZAP is your local affiliate in Blowing Rock.
ZAP Fitness is sponsored by Reebok.
Registration is now open for Summer 2016 camps. Check out the camp information here!
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