The 5K run is just part of the picture.
The 650 girls crossing the finish line Friday evening at Traverse City Central High School's track were already winners.
All sporting number 1 bibs pinned to their purple race T-shirts, they completed the region's eighth annual Girls on the Run event -- the first held in Traverse City after seven years in Glen Lake. Runners, their coaches and family members came from 29 participating schools in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties for the event.
The twice-weekly meetings after school in the spring were about more than running and meeting athletic goals. Practices started out with girls running a half-mile, then increased incrementally until they could run the 3.1 miles. Off the track, participants also tackled emotional, social, mental and spiritual development.
With all the distractions, temptations and challenges facing tweens and teens, the international Girls on the Run program, for grades 3-5, and Girls on Track program, for grades 6-8, promotes positive choices.
"It's mainly for fun and self-esteem and character building," said Faith Sousa, the coach for Kingsley. "The running was a bonus."
Along the way, the runners forged bonds based on shared goals, learning and accomplishments.
"We made new friends and it was really fun," said Alex Kessler, an eighth-grader at Kinsgley Middle School. "We do a lot of stuff together, build up character from this."
International nonprofit programs, Girls on the Run and Girls on Track began in 1996 with a mission to change lives through running. The program sports 120 councils around the world. It's 12-week curriculum is shortened in northern Michigan to six because spring and outdoor running season start later.
A growing number of girls every year prompted organizers to move the 2008 5K run to Traverse City. Working with the Traverse City Track Club, they found a date that dovetailed nicely with the Bayshore Marathon the next day.
"We are just so blessed because the Bayshore guys are letting us piggyback on their race," said Therese Schaub, the northwest Michigan council director for Girls on the Run. "It just has grown so much."
Sixty-seven volunteer coaches pitched in to lead the Girls on the Run and Girls on Track teams. Sara VanHoorne of Lake Ann took charge of the Westwoods Elementary School contingent. The nurse and stay-at-home mom is a runner who trained 20 girls, including her daughter, Hannah, 9. Mother and daughter raced together for the first time.
"It's about body images and respect for themselves," said VanHoorne of the program. "It changed them over six weeks."
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