As far as Claim Your Journey goes, Youth Run NOLA has been radio silent most of the summer while our student runners and coaches enjoyed some well deserved R&R. But we’ve been busy nonetheless, and as another season of twice-weekly practices and monthly races gets underway, we’re excited to share news about what promises to [...]

Saturday morning, up before daybreak, I was warming some food for Youth Run NOLA’s post-race celebration (see photo) at the Crescent City Classic when I thought: the kids are rolling out of bed right now. As I parked my car, filled with trays of buffalo wings and pasta salad, I thought: they’re stretching and warming [...]

It’s been a bit quiet for Youth Run NOLA since the half marathon. The adults have been preparing for the Crescent City Classic, the kids for state testing, and though practices have been going on as usual, the last three weeks or so have been like the calm before the storm. Well now, that’s coming [...]

A spectator’s narrative of Youth Run NOLA in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. When I left my house Sunday morning, the sky was gray. Not from impending rain, mind you — it would turn out to be the most perfect day for a marathon, bright and temperate with a slight breeze — but because [...]

I hope everyone had a relaxing, fun, and safe Mardi Gras! The holiday, coupled with the fact that we’ve been in a bit of a training lull, means I’ve been on a short hiatus from writing. But I’m back for the final stretch, probably the busiest 6 weeks of our year: This Sunday, Feb. 26, [...]

I looked up the definition of the word recently, because it was the word that came to mind when I heard that our friend Sam Fox had agreed to speak to our students at last weekend’s race: (noun) – steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of [...]

As we pull together final preparations for Youth Run NOLA’s participation in the New Orleans Track Club’s Larry Fuselier 10K tomorrow morning — if you’re out there, look for us in the yellow shirts and cheer us on! — I’ve been thinking of the smaller group of students training for the half-marathon who I had [...]

Saturday trainings for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon — and it should be noted here that 13.1 miles will be the longest distance some of these students have ever run — are underway, and an impromptu photo at our Chalmette Battlefield training run shows everyone looking happy, healthy, and oh-so-pumped. The training regimen is [...]

Toward the end of last semester, I was lucky enough to have the chance to work with a Chalmette High student named Sharel on an essay that will be included in our January newsletter. In it, she included a description of a Youth Run NOLA practice, which take place between two and four days a [...]

Though Youth Run NOLA’s fall slate was full of training runs, road races, practices, and meetings, the spring is when we really hit our stride. Between now and April, we have six major events, from a portion of our students taking on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon to all participants capping off the year [...]

Our fantastic train run with Girls on the Run now complete, fall semester at an end (or almost), got me thinking about the Youth Run NOLA year. I’ve been remiss about not posting more consistently in the last few weeks — grad student life is great until the last month of the term — but [...]