Beth Field used to spend her Saturday mornings scanning newspaper headlines and scrambling to take a shower before her daughters, ages 2 and 4, woke up.
Not anymore.
Now Saturday mornings are serenity and sweat for Field. She kicks off the day chatting and stretching with other women before she takes off on a 3.5-mile run on a trail that winds through the lush woods at Maybury State Park in Northville, Mich.
Field, 38, is a member of a running group made up of moms who have been meeting since early March to get fit, take a break from family life and spend time with other women.
“With young kids, it’s hard to find time to fit it in,” Field said. Meeting others on the weekend has motivated her to work out throughout the week, too.
Across the country, mamas bent on doing something good for their bodies are banding together to tackle fitness challenges while juggling the demands of motherhood. Some are taking on road races, duathlons and triathlons. Others are meeting up for regular exercise, whether it’s walking around the neighborhood, taking yoga classes or playing with their kids at the park.
Groups like Moms in Motion and seeMOMMYrun.com are gaining members as mothers look for ways to squeeze exercise and female bonding into their busy lives.
In the past two years, seeMOMMYrun.com, which helps moms who live near each other connect, has grown from one mom looking for friends to more than 13,600 members across the country.
A pleasing motion
Seeing the small but committed group of runners on Saturday mornings pleases Deborah Foy. The 42-year-old mother of two started a Moms in Motion this spring in Novi, Mich., to help busy moms do something good for themselves.
The moms meet once a week for about an hour and a half. Foy, a personal trainer, gives them running schedules to do on their own during the week. They pay $200 to be part of a 13-week session; the fee covers membership, charitable donations, T-shirts and other expenses.
The group approach to exercise is touted as good for the women, helping them to get fit, forge friendships and feel empowered.
It’s also good for their families, say moms who participate.
“If they don’t carve out time for themselves, their home life goes to pot,” said Foy, who has been a runner for 20-plus years. She started the group after realizing that most of her training clients were women whose most common complaint was that they didn’t have time to exercise.
“I like the camaraderie,” said April Vezina, 39, a mother of three. When the group formed in March, none of the women knew each other but had heard about it by seeing a notice at a coffee shop, reading a bumper sticker or meeting Foy handing out fliers outside a Babies “R” Us store.
Now they share stories when they gather and, if someone misses a week, one of the others calls to check in on her.
Making new friends
Other groups have formed as a way for women to meet other women tackling motherhood.
Two years ago, Andrea Vincent was a first-time mother with a young child in a new city. She started the seeMOMMYrun.com network from her home in the Washington, D.C., area as a way to make friends who shared her interest in fitness.
“I am an avid runner and I had just moved to Northern Virginia,” said Vincent, 36, in a recent phone interview. “It really was a very selfish effort trying to make some friends.”
Now the site www.seemommyrun.com has members and groups in every state. The site and groups are free to join.
Unlike Moms in Motion, where mothers are encouraged to leave the kids in someone else’s care, seeMOMMYrun.com groups often meet with kids in tow.
The Web site is a way for moms to connect with others who live near them, make plans to meet and swap fitness and parenting tips.
Sometimes the connection stays virtual, as on the ClubMom Web site, co founded by talk-show host Meredith Vieira. Women who join the site, www.clubmom.com, can get advice from other moms on topics such as cooking, relationships, parenting, religion, fashion — and fitness. It is also a social network and features blogs and message boards.
Women from across the country are featured on the site as Go-to Moms who give advice. Recent articles include “Confessions of a Gym Class Flunkie” and “Slimming Down When It Seems Hard.”
Women who make fitness a priority also are helping their children, moms say.
“I want to help moms stay fit and active because we are the first and sometimes best role models for our kids,” Vincent said.
That’s just the message Jessica Tobis, 21, wants to send to her 3-year-old daughter. But finding other women to work out with near her home hasn’t been easy.
A student at Eastern Michigan University, Tobis signed up on seeMOMMYrun.com last summer as a way to meet other moms as she tried to lose the 60 pounds she had gained while she was pregnant.
Tobis communicated with Detroit-area moms through the site, but most lived too far away to get together regularly. She has met with one woman from the site.
“I always see other moms with their kids, but it’s not that easy to go up to the moms and say, `Can I run with you?”‘ Tobis said. “I’m not that brave, I’m not that bold.”
Tobis, who has lost weight by running and working out — sometimes her husband joins her — said she still wants to find a group of women to work out with.
“It’d be a little bit easier if there were other moms,” she said.
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Sites help moms find group fitness
Looking for other moms to get fit with? Check out these groups:
– Moms in Motion: www.momsinmotion.com
Moms train for an event and raise money for a cause in their community.
– SeeMOMMYrun.com: www.seemommyrun.com
A free Web site connects moms who live near each other and are looking to get fit and make friends.
– Stroller Strides: www.strollerstrides.com
A group exercise program for moms with young kids.
– ClubMom: www.clubmom.com
A virtual community for moms across the country to connect on issues including nutrition, health and fitness.
