Summer Runninghood Group for Women! Who's Game?? Support, Motivation, Inspiration, and Bonding!

It's Saturday, it isn't raining, and my husband is home sweet home!  There is a happy and complete feeling around the house and we all seem to be buzzing with that Saturday morning cartoons and coffee "we're all together" vibe!  After a few hours of laziness I'll head out on my 16 mile run.  I will attempt to do 12 of my miles at marathon pace (shooting for a 7:30 pace).  I'm confident that the adjustment, sports massage, and new running shoes should only help me accomplish my running goals today.  Hoping the sports massage didn't exhaust my muscles too much.  


So, for all of you local runners and moms in the area (Oregon/Washington), I'm throwing around a few ideas for this summer.  I don't have anything solid in place yet but I'm thinking about organizing a summer group for mothers.  You don't have to be a mother or a runner to be part of the group either, although I'm thinking that the group will have something to do with fitness and running as well as issues that come up in our daily life as a mother!  Here are just a few very initial thoughts for this Runninghood group:

• A group for mothers of all kinds.  Working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, mothers of grown kids, mothers of young children, pregnant mothers, etc.  Even wanna be someday mamas that are just not there yet!  
• Meeting once a month.
• I will mostly likely send out questions or a topic relating to motherhood or fitness/running that we can all reflect on between meetings.  I might even suggest a book we can read together or an article that is of particular interest.  Or just a chapter of a book that we all might find interesting and fun!  
• Something EASY and VERY LITTLE work involved.  This will be about connecting with other moms and not about having more work to do!  Ha!  My plan is for it to be a stress relief, NOT something that should add stress. 
• When we meet we can meet over coffee, tea, water, or ever a nice cold beer and discuss our questions, topics, or whatever comes to mind. Or just listen or talk about nothing related to motherhood or running but instead discuss how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a lot of kids or how Katie Holmes looks so cute prego. 
• Maybe a nice slow social jog walk or group run of varying pace groups together before we discuss our topics, books, or whatever.  And it will be summer in the Pacific Northwest and we will actually be able to meet at outside locations as well as finding fun inside places.
• We can change the location every week....Vancouver, downtown Portland (Powell's would be fun after jogging on the waterfront), forest park and then a local bar in the Northwest area.
• I might suggest that we all start a Motherhood/Runner/Fitness journal together for our group.  No eye rolls now! This would be optional since we don't all love to write but it could be a place to reflect during the month and note your thinking about whatever topic we decide to focus on for the month.  We could even do some fun vision or art collages together as a way to get our creative energy flowing.  I would bring the glue, magazines, even music! 
• An opportunity to get hooked up with other mothers, runners, or women that have common goals and issues.  Even if you have never run or done anything related to fitness in your LIFE!  This would be a great way to PLUG IN in a SAFE and NON-COMPETITIVE environment where we are all about coming together to encourage, support, and relate to each other.  

I would love to hear your thoughts about this potential Runninghood group for Women (even if you're not a mom).  Women of all walks, sizes, age...YOU! I'm thinking this could be a really fun way to connect and be inspired by each other!  So, who's down?  

Amanda