Meet Your Village Best Friends Edition: Laura + Kate
FIT4MOM DC
Everything’s better with friends – especially working out and motherhood
Kate and Laura are best friends, neighbors, stroller-striding sidekicks, and Run Club partners who show up for each other on the good days, the hard days, and the freezing-cold-why-are-we-doing-this days. Their story is a perfect reminder that fitness and motherhood are both better (and way more fun) when you don’t do them alone.
Meet Laura
Originally from Potomac, Maryland, Laura now lives in the District with her husband Dave, their 3.5 year-old daughter Rebecca, 1 year-old son Gabe, and 5 year-old cockapoo Luna. By day, Laura works hard to make sure school leaders across the country are giving their best to our students; and when she clocks out, you're most likely to find her reading, cooking or watching anything on Bravo.
Meet Kate
Kate is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota where the occupation of the city by federal law enforcement has undermined the safety, security and rights of residents. FIT4MOM DC stands with Minnesota. If you do too, Kate recommends this resource for identifying how best to help.
While her mind is surely on Minneapolis these days, her home is here in DC - two doors down from Laura and shared with her husband Peter and their three kids Teddy (6), Finn (4), and Abby (10 mo.s).
Who gets credit for finding FIT4MOM?
Laura discovered Stroller Strides after her daughter was born in 2022. Ignite classes kept her going after she went back to work and then she found herself back in Stroller Strides after her son was born last January. She had to wait a few months for Kate to be cleared after her daughter was born, but by May you could find Laura, Kate, Gabe and Abby at nearly every NW stroller class. Having only just met a couple of months before, you might say that FIT4MOM was an essential ingredient in this now famous friendship.
Joining Run Club took a little more convincing and the credit here is probably shared between Coach Tara and Kate. Since signing up for their first session five months ago, Kate has already run three 5K races and Laura's set her sights on the Cherry Blossom 10 miler.
Is it really better to workout with friends?
That would be a "yes!" from Kate and Laura, in part because your friends are what make you show up.
Laura told us: "There’s the accountability—especially on cold mornings or when I’m exhausted ... Over time, running and working out stopped being something I negotiated with myself; it’s just something we do together."
Like everything else though, friends make working out more fun. Kate and Laura have made their workouts a chance to connect, catch-up, vent and laugh.
The lesson: hang around for coffee after class and invite new moms you meet to join you for a workout - that first class is always free. If you're looking for new mom friend this is a target-rich environment. See you in class!