On the first day of camp, the girls learned about Nina’s legacy and did their first run together—one loop at the Sports City complex, which is exactly 1.8 kilometers (or a little over a mile). After the run, they took a water break before getting into groups and doing sprints for about 20 minutes. The girls seemed to really enjoy the sprints because of the short distance and thrill of competing with each other!
Then they shifted into the first guest speaker presentation from Jasmine Kadoura, with assistance from her friend, Farah Shouani. The presentation focused on strength training as well as its importance for runners and involved four different exercises for the girls to try in groups of 10 to 15. These exercises included duck walks, using resistance bands, and doing ladder exercises. Jasmine concluded her presentation with a full-group exercise, where girls tried to catch a soccer ball so they could pick an exercise for the group to do (e.g., lunges, squats, push-ups, or burpees—which are a more elaborate form of a push-up). The girls seemed to really enjoy this game, as they tried to elbow each other out of the way so they could catch the ball, and then the girls waited in anticipation to see if the ball-catcher would pick a relatively hard or easy exercise.
We wrapped up the day by eating lunch (donated by Siniora Food Industries) as well as distributing introductory surveys for the girls to fill out about their views on running and healthy lifestyles. Overall, the girls seemed happy and excited to be out and about at Sport City on a nice day!
