The Edina Girls Athletic Association Run Team celebrates 10 years with a donated park bench. Photos: Edina Girls Athletic Association
The program has spent a decade encouraging girls to lace up and start running.
The Edina Girls Athletic Association (EGAA) is changing the game when it comes to running (and flag football and volleyball to boot). The EGAA Run Team strives to get girls involved in the sport earlier, with an emphasis on teamwork rather than competition. “Most girls are not exposed to running until they get to seventh grade, and then it’s a track and it’s very competitive,” says Run Team director Tanya Dowda. “If you haven’t run before, it’s very intimidating.”
The idea behind EGAA’s Run Team is to build confidence in runners between third–seventh grades. The team meets in local parks and learns how to map runs in the surrounding neighborhoods. Older and more experienced runners—aka Run Champions—mentor the girls and ensure their safety during the run.
We spoke with Dowda to learn more about the team’s decade on the move and about the upcoming Celebrate Every Step 5K from 6:30–7:15 p.m. on July 21 at the Harriet Lake Bandshell.
As an avid runner, what are some of the lessons that you’re trying to impart on the Run Team participants?
There are a lot of things. I would say the main ones would be the feeling you get—the endorphins you get—when you run[and] the way that you can work through ideas and challenges when you run. It’s also about just taking care and knowing how your body works. With running, you’re very in-tune to your body—when it’s tired, when it has more energy. Also, it helps you with nutrition because you’ve got to have good fuel to be able to run.
Since the team’s first summer with 12 participants, how has the EGAA Run Team evolved over the years?
Now, we have anywhere from 30 to 60 participants, depending on the summer. And we added the [Celebrate Every Step] 5K as well. The idea for the training is you start with 1 mile, build up to the 3.2, and then run the 5K together.
And what are your goals for the team in the immediate years?
You know, it’s interesting because when we started this program, we were like, ‘OK, let’s grow it like we’re growing flag football and volleyball.’ But running is very different because we count on our Run Champions. Run Champions are ninth [grade] through college, and they run with the girls to make sure that we have a very safe program, that the girls are always with an older runner.
[One Run Champion], she started with the program 10 years ago, and she said she never had interest in running. But then after she joined the program and she ran, she realized she loved it. She ran through high school, and she just got a scholarship to college for running. So it’s kind of a full circle moment, and now she’s a Run Champion. So, if we have one of those a year, that’s really where our heart is. It’s not about numbers; it’s about impact.
You’ll be celebrating your 10 years with the Celebrate Every Step 5K at Lake Harriet. What can participants expect from the race?
It’s all about fun and the joy of running. We have a DJ come, and we dance and do a warm up before. We give a prize to the family or the runner that has the most family participants and friends there. It’s different every year, but very casual, laid-back fun.
What is the thing that you’re looking forward to most about the Celebrate Every Step 5K?
I get goosebumps just even talking about it right now. It’s to see them cross the finish and the look on their face like, you know, they did it. It’s just so cool to see, at such a young age, the spirit and the joy that they have in this, in something that they never had experienced.
Edina Girls Athletic Association
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