Active people don’t stop being active when they become parents; they just become more innovative and efficient.
Whether to keep the step count up, find a sense of community or not miss a beat while training for health goals, new and experienced parents are strapping the kids in the stroller and hitting the trails.
It’s no secret finding a babysitter can be challenging, but moms and dads grow to rely on the bonding time their new sidecar brings; not just with their kid copilots, but with other parents, too.
Bonding through training
“We have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, and over the summer, upgraded and got a double-wide stroller to fit both kids in,” said Dan Petty in Littleton. “It’s been great. I’m training for the New York City Marathon right now, and my kids have been companions for much of this summer while I’ve been training up for that.”
Petty’s daily treks often take him and his kids on runs beyond 10 miles.
There are no iPads or screen time. Instead, the kids bring a few toys and snacks and enjoy the landscape while they speed down the Mary Carter Greenway Trail, one of Petty’s favorites. Just north of Chatfield Reservoir along the South Platte River, it provides paved and gravel paths (large enough for double-wide strollers) for runners and walkers.
While the kids enjoy a near first-class riding experience, Dad gets his training in and Mom gets a well-deserved break.
“It’s great because when I take them out for an hour or two hours, or sometimes longer, it gives my wife a break to read or work out, herself,” Petty said. “It’s one of these things where I get exercise, the kids get fresh air, we have some time together and my wife gets a real break from two kids, which is a lot.”
The NYC Marathon on Nov. 2 will be Petty’s second. He was a competitive runner in high school and college but took some time away from the sport. After some friends got back into it a few years ago, Petty did too, not letting his fatherhood get in his way.
In fact, his kids help push him harder. That, and the altitude. Petty has lived in Colorado for 15 years and said training here before running a marathon at sea level certainly helps. Though he’ll drop the stroller weight on race day, Petty knows his kids will be cheering him on.
Petty is looking to raise money for the Asian American Journalists Association. To support him in the New York City Marathon, consider donating at www.aaja.org/the-futures-fund/.
Memories through the miles
Another parent in Arvada sets her eyes on a lofty goal, and her daughter is a key piece to the puzzle.
Cassandra Porter is an assistant cross country and track coach for Arvada West High School. As a lifetime runner, she competed in high school for the Early College of Arvada until 2016 before becoming a Roadrunner at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
After becoming a mom and a coach in 2021, Porter continued running, bringing her daughter to Arvada West practices and pushing her along. Last year, around the Fourth of July, Porter learned a new Guinness World Record was set by a woman pushing a pram (stroller) at five minutes, 24.17 seconds.
The woman’s name was Neely Gracey, and oddly enough, she was from Boulder and set the record in Englewood.
“I’m just always up to date on anything in the running world and last summer I think I saw that. Some mom from Colorado actually broke the record, and she got it down to 5:24,” Porter said. “And so I called my coach and we talked about it and applied for the Guinness record. It takes about three months to get approved for it. So, once we got the approval back, we were going to run it last fall of 2023. But I just had a couple of hiccups in my training. I had an injury and then a medical issue. So we pushed it back until I was fit again.”
This past April, Kaitlin Donner from Viera, Florida, broke the record again, bringing the number down to five minutes, 11.46 seconds.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to have to train a little bit harder for this now.’” Porter said. “So now I think we are ready. I just think it’d be cool to run it with my daughter and also have my athletes watch and hopefully inspire them. That’s a big motivation for it.”
Porter’s been running with her daughter since she was three months old. She’s now almost 3 and has accompanied Porter on more than 50 runs, whether they’re longer distance runs, sprints or tempo runs.
“She loves it,” she said. “My athletes love it when she comes to practice and runs with us. We put a speaker in the stroller and we play music, and she gets to ride along and just eat her snacks. It’s the best.”
She doesn’t have an exact date for the record but Porter knows it’s something she wants to tackle soon. It’s been on her mind for a while now. Whether she breaks it or not, the time with her daughter has been invaluable and irreplaceable.
“It would be a huge deal. I’m so goal-based,” Porter said. “This has just been a goal for a year and I want to check it off the list, hopefully. I’m a really nervous racer so I’m hoping that this will kind of be a breakthrough with racing. I usually am really good with training, but racing is a little bit more nerve-wracking for me. So I think racing with my daughter will kind of calm my nerves. I think it’ll just be something super special between me and her.”
Community in parenthood
For others, becoming a parent could open a door to a more communal and active lifestyle.
Stephanie Holzhauer is the owner of Fit4Mom Castle Rock. Before moving to Colorado a couple of years ago, she got exposed to the program after becoming a mom herself in San Diego.
She started as a member, and after several Fit4Moms experiences across several cities, decided she had to get more involved.
“I immediately fell in love with community fitness and just having support from other moms, being a first-time mom myself,” Holzhauer said. “Just in that community, having that support and then being able to work out with my kid … one of the biggest reasons I joined is as a social person, too. I love to work out outside, and as a mom, I never wanted to put my child in daycare at a gym. It was like a win-win because I was able to work out, I was able to make friends, and I didn’t put my child in childcare.”
Fit4Mom offers several different classes for mothers, including a specified prenatal workout for expecting moms, mom-only sessions like body wellness and body boost classes, and the most popular: stroller strides.
As its name suggests, this workout is a full-body strength, cardio and core training class all while engaging their kids in the stroller. And the kids get a lot of the classes as well, she said. Instructors will sing songs to the kids and engage them in physical and active learning exercises.
“I absolutely love it when I have a mom send me little videos of their kids at home, doing lunges with their stroller or singing songs and kind of playing stroller strides,” Holzhauer said. “My girls are now (older), but when they were little, they would play stroller strides all the time … And to this day, they love what I do, and I love to come to classes, and they love fitness and the incredible example that moms are setting for their kids just being outside and being active.”
There’s also a run club, which includes an eight-week guided training program for moms interested in running a 5K or half-marathon, with or without their stroller stragglers.
When she first got involved working for Fit4Mom, Holzhauer said she figured she could teach a few classes with no problem, but she never expected how much it would give back to her.
“It has been incredibly rewarding,” she said. “You know, when you have someone that shows up and she joins and she’s like, ‘I didn’t know how much I needed this. I was at home, I was alone.’ Or maybe they were struggling with postpartum depression, and they’ll all of a sudden come to class and realize they’re not the only one that’s dealing with this or that. So just seeing the friendships develop within our community and the support that they all have for one another … it’s incredibly rewarding.”