Young girls build fun, fitness and self-esteem through running.

On a walk through my neighborhood on a recent sunny afternoon, I cross paths with several people out for a run. A young man dressed in the latest sports gear, plugged into his iPod, jogs past. A pair of middle-aged women chat and laugh as they trot by. A sprightly student from a nearby university enjoys her fast-paced run through the leafy residential community. Men and women of all shapes and sizes, at all times of day, even through the bitter cold of winter, are running.

In the United States, running is on the rise. Over the past decade, the number of Americans finishing road races has increased 37 percent, surpassing the 10 million mark for the first time in 2009, according to the Los Angeles-based Running USA. A neighbor admits she began running outdoors last year because it offers a more convenient and economical alternative to exercising at a private gym. With many people looking for ways to cut costs while seeking a healthier lifestyle, going for a run becomes a natural choice. The sport of running offers beauty in its simplicity—the only equipment you need is a pair of shoes (and lately researchers at Harvard University in Massachusetts and elsewhere have questioned even that, as running barefoot becomes the latest trend).

Seeing more people running around town is not a surprise, but on a recent afternoon I came across a large group of 8- and 9-year-old girls jogging along, with an adult woman near the front of the pack and another at the back. Kids running—was the ice cream truck nearby?

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Girls on the Run is so much fun!” shouts one of the young athletes as she passes.

A little girl with her mother steps off the sidewalk to let the runners go by. “Yay!” she cheers, clapping and smiling for the pack of girls who wave and smile in return. “My daughter loves to see them run around the neighborhood,” explains her mom. “She can’t wait to join when she’s older.”

Girls on the Run is a national program recently introduced at our neighborhood elementary school, encouraging young girls aged 8 to 12 to develop healthy lifestyles and self-esteem through running. With more than 170 chapters around the United States and growing, Girls on the Run helps thousands of girls build emotional and physical well-being through a curriculum aimed at this particularly sensitive age group. Foun­ded in 1996 in Charlotte, North Carolina by triathlete-teacher-counselor Molly Barker, children in the program spend 10 weeks working in small groups with a coach to train for a running event, but also to get to know themselves and build a solid footing on the way to becoming young adults.

Gillian Page, 12, of Washington, D.C., went on her first run with Girls on the Run two years ago. “At first I was nervous because I had never really run before. But it’s low pressure and not competitive so that made it fun,” she says with a big smile. “In the end, the coaches made us all paper-plate awards and I won the ‘Running Makes Me Happy’ award!” Now in middle-school, Page recently finished second place for her age group in the city-wide championships for cross-country running.

According to Girls on the Run, this age group offers a prime audience because girls are still responsive to adult input, but the influence of peers and the media is beginning to set in. Often girls will step into what the organization calls “The Girl Box,” where they define self-worth according to their appearance, who their friends are and what they wear. Girls on the Run coaches work to help participants stay out of The Girl Box, by building inner strength to prevent future problems such as eating disorders and depression.

A coach and mother of three, Fran Brennan helped bring the Girls on the Run program to her daughter’s elementary school in Washington, D.C. “I loved the idea of the program when I heard about it from another parent. I’m always looking for ways to get all my kids—but my daughter especially—to get outside and run around. The program empowers girls because they realize the amazing things their bodies can do,” Brennan says.

The program’s curriculum includes twice-a-week lessons for 12 weeks and starts by encouraging the girls to get to know themselves—their own values, likes and dislikes—and discussing these with their peers in a supportive environment. The first group of lessons are titled “All About Me—Getting to Know Who I Am and What I Stand For,” with each session featuring stretching, dialogue, running activities and games. For example, the girls might put a piece of paper and pencil on a spot along a track, then run, walk or hop laps around the track. Each time they pass their piece of paper, they write down something they’ve always wanted to do but have been afraid to try, or haven’t had the opportunity to try. After several laps, at the end of the lesson each girl has written her own “intentional to-do list.”

“My favorite lesson is the one on emotional health,” says Sandhya Krishnan, operations manager for Girls on the Run in Chicago, Illinois. As a graduate student in community psychology, she began volunteering for Girls on the Run to combine her personal interest in running with her passion for empowering girls. “In the lesson, girls identify different emotions, and discover the importance of having that range of emotions to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They learn that anger is not wrong, but a violent response to the emotion is a problem—girls don’t have to be happy all the time.” Krishnan sees the program’s positive impact on the all-volunteer adult coaches as well, with many saying they wish the program had been around when they were younger. “We use a lot of open-ended questions that draw answers from the heart, and these resonate with both the girls and the women facilitating the curriculum,” she says.

“I grew up in a house with an anorexic mother, where it was all about body image,” explains Brennan, a journalist and food writer who co-founded FoodNewsJournal. com. “This difficult childhood experience colors everything I do. With Girls on the Run, I do it for my daughter’s sake. The program offers more than just the physical aspect because it’s also about building self-esteem and being a good friend. The curriculum plays to their entire being, not just to their physical strength—one week will be about gossip, another about healthy food choices. The kids pay attention, and since we do it in game form, they enjoy it, and they remember the lessons. It sticks.”

The second set of lessons revolve around team-building along with more information on healthy living. Encouraging cooperation and listening, explaining the damage caused by bullying and gossiping, and teaching good sportsmanship are a few of the topics covered. As the lessons progress, so do the physical activities, which may include a longer run or walk through the neighborhood along with the coaches. “Every time we meet, we do some form of curriculum first, then we go out for a run,” explains Brennan. “The first day, we run about a mile. Each time we run for six or seven minutes, then walk for one minute, then run again and so on. We build up from there, adding a little more every week. I go home and map out our mileage to show the girls the next time, and they are fascinated to see it grow. It gives them a huge sense of accomplishment.”

“Running is a way to push yourself to do better, and keep going even when you think you can’t,” says Page. “And I like to run because when you’re running, you can think. There’s nothing distracting you.” She pauses and smiles. “It’s a nice way to be alone in your thoughts.”

The final six lessons relate to a girl’s place in the greater community. They include a session on media literacy and how to interpret a new message, as well as creating and implementing a group service project. The program concludes with an opportunity to participate in a non-competitive 5K event. In Brennan’s experience, everyone in the program completed the final run—even those who didn’t think they could ever do it.

“During the first season, there were clearly kids who didn’t want to be there, who were just signed up by their moms. And of course they weren’t that pleasant to be around,” she admits, laughing. “But I was the ‘bad cop’ and kept them going during our lessons. I’d tell them I knew they could do it. Even when they didn’t want to run, they would still get out there and run with us. I’d just make them laugh by running up next to them saying, ‘How can you lose to an old lady like me?’ That was always a big motivator! And in the end, they did it.”

Families and friends are encouraged to join in the fun at the final 5K event, a festive occasion including activities like a big group warm-up and stretch, face painting, pep talks, sprints for 2- to 5-year-olds, spray painting hair and even tiara decorating.

“In the end they come to run the 5K, with anyone they want. That’s their goal, and they do it,” says Brennan. “Honestly, I am always in tears watching these girls finish—they are so proud of themselves. These are the kids who drive me crazy all season, saying they can’t run, but they come up to me at the end and say it was easy! One girl was so happy and proud of herself, she said, ‘Wow, I’m actually a good runner!’ The next season she was one of the best participants, a complainer before who became just a joy to be around, and she is a great runner. Really, it sounds hokey. But it’s amazing. I well up.”

Jane Varner Malhotra is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.