Danielle Maynard and brother Nick Maynard promoting Nutrition’s the Mission at the Pacers Running DCXC 2015 event hosted at TC Williams High School. Photos taken by Sandra Maynard
Varsity track is notorious for being one of the most competitive sports in high school; not only are athletes constantly trying to beat their own records, but also the records of their competitors and even teammates. Track pushes athletes to constantly keep track of numbers and scores, forcing runners and jumpers to memorize every minuscule
detail of their own performance, as well as others. Amongst the cutthroat and highly competitive lifestyle many varsity track athletes endure season after season, often times athletes forget to factor-in the most important detail of their performance ---their health.
The lack of emphasis placed on a runner’s health surprised current McLean High School student Danielle Maynard as she continued to run for the school’s Varsity Track Team. Maynard noticed that as the running seasons went on, some of her female teammates became increasingly skinny and malnourished, often times suffering broken bones and other injuries relating to the stress on and gradual deterioration of their bodies. “The female athletes themselves didn’t seem to notice the change in their bodies,” Maynard said.
After witnessing three cases involving weight loss and skeletal injury, the senior became inspired to create “Nutrition’s the Mission”—a Girl Scout Gold Award project which spreads awareness about running nutrition, particularly the Female Athlete Triad--- the same condition that affected her previous teammates. The Female Athlete Triad is a combination of amenorrhea, osteoporosis and eating disorders that stem from a lack of calorie consumption during high intensity training periods. Maynard has spent the past year creating a network to spread awareness throughout the local running community, from collaborating closely with Pacers Running Store to creating her own website.
In setting up the project, Maynard met with a certified nutritionist to discuss the topic in depth—an interview that will later be compiled into an informative video to present with her Gold Scout Award. As Nutrition’s the Mission has become more established, Maynard has reached out to other local high school teams such as Langley, Marshall, TJ, Hayfield, and more, so that information regarding runners’ nutrition can continue to be spread on- and off- the track.
Maynard hopes “this project will benefit the community by providing an informational hub for the youth running community to easily access online.” Maynard hopes that her message will not only be spread to teens equally as passionate about the sport that she is, but also to recreational “weekend warriors” or anyone else that enjoys running. “My favorite part of the project is integrating myself in and exploring the running community, which is far more tight-knit and extensive than I expected,” Maynard commented. “I fell in love with running after my first season freshman year, and it is a pleasure to surround myself with others who feel the same way about such an incredible sport.”