Motivating the next generation: Girls on the Run SoleMates

As a national sponsor of the Girls on the Run SoleMates charity runner program, Garmin is partnering with this great organization to further their mission and share the stories of the women and men who are “running for a reason”. Runners can sign up for any event — runs, walks, bike rides or triathlons — and raise funds that will support their chosen council of Girls on the Run. Want your next race to help change lives? Find out more. Read the inspiring story below from Katy, a SoleMates participant and Girls on the Run coach. Katy shares how being first was always a challenge growing up in an “Eight is Enough” family. Now she’s hit her stride and is able to mentor young Girls on the Run participants as she trains for her first half marathon.

Someone once told me that it is very difficult to be the first to do something when you are born at the end of the line in a big family. I am the seventh of eight children in a family of overachievers. Several of my siblings had won academic awards, received athletic honors and/or been in theater, band and chorus before I got the chance. Finally, at 38 years old, I did something no one else in my family had done:  I earned a doctoral degree. I decided on graduation day that I would continue to find new ways to challenge myself. I never participated in athletics growing up because I thought I would never measure up to the success of my siblings. It was better not to try than to fail. To conquer those fears, I registered for and began to train for a half-marathon. At about the same time, a colleague asked me to coach a Girls on the Run team. At our first meeting, I heard about SoleMates and I knew I had to do it. Each week as I coached my girls, I became more and more inspired. Together we overcame doubts about ourselves as runners and women. We discovered unknown athletic abilities. We listened to very personal stories about lives in which they have had to grow up way too fast. Trust among the teammates and confidence in their bodies and minds abounded. SoleMates gave me a reason to continue to train on days when I didn’t really want to, but the girls showed me my purpose for running: it doesn’t matter what family you come from or whether you do something first, it matters what kind of person you are and that it’s ok to fail as long as you try. 

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