“Growing up, I never liked being competitive in sports. I loved being competitive in drama club, speech and debate, and choir, those kinds of things. I just never felt comfortable in that way. Around sixth grade, I discovered that I did enjoy running when the competition element was removed. I was out there on the streets of Wooster, where I grew up, finding a path and just running a few miles by myself, my mom walking the dog behind me. But I did long for a team to enjoy it with. So if I had Girls on the Run, I would have been able to have my joy in physical activity while also being part of a team. 

Girls on the Run reinforces a mastery climate program, so girls are encouraged to do their personal best and to set their own tangible goals, not compare themselves to others. In a mastery climate, girls are more likely to try new things. They’re more likely to gain confidence and to push themselves. They experience less anxiety. At our 5K events, for example, the girls all wear 5K bibs, but they’re not chipped, so they’re not timed. It’s all about setting your goal to cross the finish line at your happy pace. I often say that whether a girl goes on to be an Olympic runner or if she becomes the person at her work who gathers people to take a walk during a lunch break because she found joy in physical activity, we are equally as proud of both.

At age 10, there’s a significant decline in the number of girls participating in sports and physical activity. If she holds herself back, and might feel that she doesn’t belong unless she is good at a sport, that can reflect in every aspect of her life. I relate to that, because I wasn’t a fast runner and thought I couldn’t be on the track team. I thought, ‘if I’m not good at something, I don’t deserve to participate.’ This can transfer to, ‘maybe I don’t deserve a seat in the boardroom or in a leadership position.’ But in a mastery climate, it’s about showing up to practice, and if it doesn’t go well, that’s okay. You’re going to come back, and you’re going to do it again. That builds resilience. It is also really beautiful just knowing there’s always the chance to try again, and we want you here. This is about you, and now you can slowly start to see that improvement in your own ability, and that instills confidence.

One of the other elements of the curriculum is a community impact project. The girls come together as a team and discuss what they’re seeing in their community and school. It’s an opportunity to teach girls how it feels to give back and help others. But more importantly, we’re teaching girls to recognize a problem and have the confidence to say, ‘I can make a difference and make this change.’ 

I’ve been going through my own season of rediscovering these lessons as they apply to myself. I was putting too much pressure on myself and I felt that because I am a leader of an organization with the word run in it, I should be an elite runner or something. So my running journey has been on pause for a little bit. 

I am always preaching about the importance of mastery climate to others, but I wasn’t applying it to myself. So I signed up for the Cap City Half Marathon with some friends. It’s been a fun journey over the last couple of months of training, remembering how much I love doing this when I take the pressure off myself and just enjoy the run.”

– Sarah Hider is the Executive Director of Girls on the Run of Central Ohio, an organization that inspires individuals of all abilities to discover, build, and grow their self-confidence.