Earlier this week I was surprised. And that rarely happens. It is hard to get things past me. I “thought” I was joining an elementary classroom discussion regarding the importance of trying your best with physical activity. But, the teacher and her student used that ruse just to get me there. Instead I had the incredible honor of watching a ten year old girl (that was a participant in Girls Gone Gazelle Run Club last spring) give a power point presentation about ME that included details about my life, my coaching, my race directing and she even played my favorite song. I can’t imagine the time it took for her to find all that information and put it into slides. She did all that because this alumni Gazelle says I inspired her. But...

I have been a runner since 1987. But, I became a running coach in 2010 when I had the idea to start a run club for youth.  As the Community Chair for the Junior League of Halifax I was able to champion a particular cause. So with the full support of the Junior League of Halifax (an organization of women in Halifax Regional Municipality that volunteer to develop and deliver effective, impactful projects for over 85 years in the community) and through a partnership with the East Dartmouth Boys and Girls Club we were literally off to the races. Those first run clubs trained for a couple of Benny Bulldog Race Weekends (est. 2010).

That experience was so much fun for me because I absolutely love running and as it turns out, I also l...

“Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person.” Wikipedia
Last year I met this incredibly talented Gazelle that we’ll call “Gazelle C.” She was a participant in our Girls Gone Gazelle spring session that trained for and completed the June Sole Sisters Women’s 5K. With no formal race or running experience (she was 10 after all) we had the opportunity to introduce her to running at a time when she was also dealing with some health issues that could have easily sidelined a less motivated athlete.
Initially starting with a combination of "walk+run+walk" training, the coaches were quickly impressed with her focus. This Ga...

Eight Alumnae Girls Gone Gazelle Run Club participants took on Virtual Everest which is a fundraiser for the Arthritis Society that involves running up (and down) Citadel Hill eighty (80!) times for a total elevation gain of 8848m. The event was scheduled for November 12, 2017. I (“Coach Stacy”) have a confession to make. I wanted the Gazelles to do something really big on this particular day so that I wouldn’t. November 12th was the one year anniversary of my participation in a 100 Mile Race (yep, I ran 100 miles) and I was afraid I’d want to commemorate it by doing something even crazier. For about a minute I thought of doing Virtual Everest by myself. Then I got an even better idea but I needed to see if there were other mi...

First of all, we love to run. So ok, we are driven by passion here - but on a serious note, girls are natural runners. (more…)