TRURO — The gymnasium at Truro Central School may not be vast, but until spring is in full swing, its perimeter is ample enough for 15 local elementary school girls on the run.
The national nonprofit Girls on the Run made its Outer Cape debut this season in the form of an eight-week after-school program here. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, a group of third- through fifth-graders holding neon-pink water bottles expend their post-scholastic jitters making looping laps around the gym. Once the weather warms, they’ll relocate to the field outside.
The volume was high and energy was higher, but the chaos was organized on a recent Wednesday. As the runners let off school day steam, they seemed energized by the meld of socialization and self-motivation that shapes the Girls on the Run program approach.
Observing their enthusiasm, you’d never know that the group consists of students from two schools — Truro Central and Provincetown — and that many them had never met until the previous week.
The program was open to elementary schoolers in Truro, Provincetown, and Wellfleet, and there were just four participants at the first practice, says Heather Harper, after-school activities director and business administrator at Truro Central. But word of the fun spread fast, and by the following week registration had reached the 15-student cap. Eight of the students take the bus from Provincetown for practice, together with Provincetown second-grade teacher Emily Beaulieu, one of the team’s four coaches.
Practices begin with an activity meant to teach the girls obliquely about running. One warm-up involves a game of catch: First, they’re asked to throw the ball fast and reflect on how that makes them feel: “Nervous,” suggests Beaulieu. Then they throw the ball frustratingly slowly: “We were bored.”
Finally, their tosses find a good tempo, with the girls taking the time to breathe and aim. It’s a Goldilocks-style lesson in pacing oneself during a jog. The idea is to conserve energy by not starting with too much oomph right off the bat.
The girls will need to know the basics of pacing themselves by June 1, when their season culminates in a 5-kilometer race. That will take them either to Boston to partake in a larger Girls on the Run race or maybe to a smaller event in Truro.
Beaulieu was familiar with Girls on the Run before it arrived on the Outer Cape; she had coached it for two years in her hometown of Mahtomedi, Minn. No matter where it takes place geographically, the program is oriented toward confidence-building and cooperation at what can be a difficult stage of development, she says.
“They’re creating a toolbox of different skills,” says Beaulieu — ones she says will be useful for resolving conflict and in all kinds of teamwork: “It’s about inspiring and encouraging girls.”
Truro School Nurse Beth Cook is finding coaching very different from teaching a class. Coaching, she says, has a lot more to do with guiding students than keeping them in line. The kids aren’t busy pushing boundaries, Cook says. Instead, “They want to engage and participate.”
One runner tells a reporter that her favorite part of practice is that “we get to run around.”
In addition to Cook and Beaulieu, the two other coaches are Maggie Allen and Maggie Taylor (who, Harper says, goes by Marge at practice to work around the double-Maggie confusion). Allen teaches pre-K at Truro Central School, and Taylor is a community volunteer.
On April 10, the girls’ fourth practice, they took a novel approach to “lap counting.” As the girls ran loops, half moved clockwise and the other half counterclockwise. Each time they passed another runner, they offered up a high five and a word of encouragement. They received a hair tie each time they completed one round.
“It’s only been a couple of weeks, but you can already see them pushing themselves with the physical activity,” Cook says.
After the running part of practice lets up, the girls coalesce in a circle and give each other “energy awards.” These are a show of appreciation for teammates who met their own goals or helped a teammate, Cook says.
A student from Provincetown approaches one from Truro and thanks her for giving her an award. Then the girls huddle with their coaches for a reverberating all-arms-in cheer: “Girls on the Run is so much fun!” they yell.
