Fitness, Fun & Friendship at Beach Break Virtual Run Retreat

This past weekend, all Moms on the Run locations across the country planned to gather in one place — on the turquoise beaches of Clearwater, FL, for Run Clearwater. While the pandemic made that impossible, our substitute virtual run retreat — Beach Break Weekend — was undoubtedly a successful time of 'Fitness, Fun and Friendship.' 

We kicked off the weekend together online with Beach Running Bingo, lots of prizes and movie night featuring the documentary "Spirit of the Marathon," which chronicles the journey of six runners as they train for the Chicago Marathon. (We all agreed if you didn't have running a marathon as a goal, watching that will certainly make you want to do one!)

Saturday featured a day of awesome activities! We started with a warm-up and fun run via the Charge app, with Coaches Carrie Tollefson and Amy Magdalein in our ears talking us through a 40-min run or walk. You could watch how far your fellow runners ran and participate in a live chat via the app. Coach Carrie then led us through a boot camp and cool down. 

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After a shower break, we gathered on our live Zoom channel to hear from author, speaker and Moms on the Run coach Gabe Cox about setting and crushing goals. This was a great session to get us thinking about our goals and help us break down a big goal into manageable pieces. 

Following lunch, fun trivia and more prizes, we heard a raw and vulnerable story from former pro runner Lauren Fleshman, who shared about her childhood and growing up with an alcoholic dad to her struggles with perinatal depression during pregnancy. Her mental health struggles were real and relatable.

​We also had a fun conversation with American marathon record holder Deena Kastor. Never mind she holds holds 24 national titles (and won the race featured in the movie we watched the night before), we all felt like we were sitting down with a longtime friend. She was inspiring! ​

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We then finished the day with a session of Pilates for Runners with STOTT Pilates Instructor Peggie Zoerhof, who will be leading our new 8-week course of Pilates Foundations for Runners, which starts Feb. 1.  It was a great, relaxing way to finish off the retreat. 

We appreciate all of you who took time away this weekend to join us and hope you are refreshed and reCHARGEd — and excited to join us next year for Run Clearwater 2022!