The Twin Cities Girls on the Run 5k race is this Sunday at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The race has 1,300 participants from 70 metro area schools, according to organizers.
The event is a non-timed, non-competitive race that starts at 9:30 a.m. Before the race, there will be free drinks from Caribou Coffee.
To register as a runner, those interested must pay a $40 fee (or what they can afford), according to a press release.
According to Kathleen Canon, the executive director of Girls Run on the Run, each girl will be paired up with a buddy, such as a parent or guardian over 18 years old.
Laura Schleede, the coach for Girls on the Run, said that for eight weeks, the girls train for the 5K race and learn about important social skills.
“So we’re doing a lot of training every practice where the girls are going at a happy pace and then they’re also incorporating those skills,” Schleede said. Girls on the Run is a youth program for 3rd- to 8th-graders that helps develop confidence and different social skills needed for adulthood.
Canon said girls face unique pressures about their bodies and how they are supposed to look.
“We know that girls, as they grow older, experience a really unique mix of pressures from society about how they look, how they feel, the way they move their body, what is and is not acceptable,” Canon said.
Schleede, whose daughter finished the race before, said the event always gives her and the girls a sense of pride after they cross the finish line.
Schleede said she;s happy to see girls “put their mind to something and achieve it … And we see them grow over the season, having it culminate with the 5K.”
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