They start off in the afternoon in a large group, leaving the high school campus and patiently waiting at the updated crosswalk for cars to stop and allow them to pass. The colorful group, clad in a rainbow of athletic gear, makes its way across Route 6 and heads down into the adjacent neighborhood for the beginning of their routine trek.
This increasingly familiar sight, of course, is the Southeast GRIT Team. GRIT, which stands for “Growing while Running and Inspiring Together,” is a group of training long-distance runners with members from the student, teacher, staff, and parent ORRHS communities. ORRHS science teacher Sheryl Briggs is one of the team’s mentors.
“We are a running program that trains students to run the Providence Marathon (or in some cases, the half marathon),” Briggs explained. “We meet two to three times during the week and on Saturday for our long run. Generally, we run 4.5 to five miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and cross-training on Wednesdays. We began training back in October, and this past weekend we completed our twenty-mile long run. We have several returners and many new runners this year with some runners joining to train during the off-season for their specific sport. We are very accommodating to students needs.”
Senior Alice Bednarczyk said, “I had originally joined because I needed a way to fulfill my upperclassmen gym requirement, but then I found it was a really good way to get into running and to train yourself to exercise if you are unused to it.” Bednarczyk added, “I think a program that teaches kids how to be comfortable as they exercise (like GRIT) is something every school needs to have.… It’s a way for people who want to run – but don’t know how to start – to actually start running.”
Hannah Powers said she likes the feeling of accomplishment the most – and of course, the team shirts and the medals.
“It encourages kids to exercise but also to discover their limits aren’t as close as they seem,” said Powers.
GRIT embarked on a milestone 20-mile run last Saturday, in overall preparation for the end-of-year marathon that runners do in May. The last official road race the group was a part of was the New Bedford Half Marathon in mid-March, where 17 students and 15 adult mentors of GRIT completed the race.
One of the runners who completed it is senior Caitlin Stopka, who is in her first year running as part of GRIT.
“We have done three road races so far: the Fairhaven Turkey Trot (5K), the Frosty Road Race (10.5 miles), and the New Bedford Half Marathon,” said Stopka. “My favorite thing from it all is getting to work with my teachers and friends to see how much we are all capable of accomplishing.”
Stopka is one of the group who herself has an impressive accomplishment under her belt already.
“She is in her first year and yet she ran the challenging New Bedford Half Marathon in two hours on a windy, cold day,” Briggs praised. “Another senior, Georgie Battaglia, has run well over 800 miles with the program and will be completing her third marathon in May. Many of the other returning runners have also bettered their times this year at the various races.”
“Being a good teammate is more than just showing up to practices and doing your part,” said Bednarczyk summing it all up. “It’s about having your group’s backs and cheering each other on whenever possible, and GRIT has helped teach me that.”
ORR Update
By Jo Caynon