• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Running Away With Quality Time: Two Single Mothers Incorporated Their Children into Their Training for Today's Corporate Run in Miami. About 21,000 People Are Expected to Participate

Posted on: Thursday, 11 May 2006, 06:07 CDT

By Cammy Clark, The Miami Herald

May 11--The sweat glistened on Patricia Gottberg's forehead Monday evening as the 34-year-old single mom jogged after her workday. She had just gotten into a nice rhythm when she heard an urgent voice from inside the jogging stroller: "Mommy, I need to go pee pee."

She was near Cocoplum Circle in Coconut Grove, with her car and the nearest public restroom nearly two miles away. That might as well be the distance to the moon for a 5-year-old who has to go.

Gottberg, who was training for tonight's street-clogging Mercedes-Benz Corporate Run, stopped her jog in mid-stride, lifting the brown-eyed, 45-pound Daniel from his cozy stroller for a quick trip to the bushes. Then it was back to the roadwork for her, back to the paper, crayons and carrot sticks for him.

Tonight, Gottberg will be among the 21,000 people expected to participate in the 22nd Corporate Run in downtown Miami, billed as the "World's Largest Office Party" with close to 575 companies taking part.

The event, which fills Bayfront Park with white hospitality tents where CEOs mingle with their employees to celebrate with Cuban cigars, ice cream and other items, has grown steadily since its inception in 1985, when 1,300 participated.

REWARDING

While most everybody had to juggle schedules to train for the 3.1-mile run/walk event, training was especially challenging -- and rewarding -- for single moms like Gottberg.

For Gottberg, an operations manager at Dotmarketing Inc., pushing a jogging stroller is a great way to stay active "and be a good mother by spending time with my curious son."

For Angela Gonzalez, a single mother of 3-year-old fraternal twins who works 10-hour days as a human-resources manager at the law firm of Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, it's her only way.

"I'm either working or taking care of them," Gonzalez said of Gabriel and Christopher. "My parents provide them with day care. So I can't impose on them when I'm not working. So if I exercise, I have to involve the boys."

While Gottberg has the means to also pay for a gym membership that includes "kiddy club," money is tighter for Gonzalez, who finds the $70 she pays a housekeeper every two weeks a luxury.

Gonzalez, 32, said she would rather give up eating than the housekeeper "so I can spend that time with my boys."

'ANTI-STRESS'

Gonzalez, who spent years steadying herself on toe shoes as a professional classical ballet dancer, now has a more difficult balancing act with her career, bread-winning responsibilities, motherhood and her own well-being.

"Exercising is anti-stress," she said. "It gives you energy and that is one thing that all single moms are lacking or need just to get by day to day."

Gottberg and Gonzalez are both captains of their company Corporate Run teams. Gottberg's son will be waiting at the finish line for her with his uncle. Gonzalez plans to walk the course with her twins.

TeamFootWorks started the run to promote health and fitness in the workplace and encourage otherwise sedentary people, who spend hours sitting at desks, to get active.

It's especially tough for new mothers to find the time and means to exercise. A 10-year study -- led by Kathryn Schmitz of the University of Minnesota and presented at the American Heart Association's epidemiology and prevention meeting in 1999 -- found that parenthood in young adults decreased the amount of leisure-time physical activity in women but not men.

"This puts women at a greater risk for heart disease and other diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle," Schmitz said at the time and reiterated last week.

Both Gottberg, a native Venezuelan, and Gonzalez, a Cuban American, were active before their pregnancies and were determined to stay that way, albeit in a somewhat reduced capacity, as they raised their small children mostly by themselves.

LIMITED CONTACT

Gottberg's 12-year relationship to Daniel's father ended shortly after Daniel was born. He now commutes from Venezuela about every two months to see his son.

Gonzalez's four-year marriage ended shortly after the twins were born. Their father also has limited time with them because his career as a classical ballet dancer requires him to travel extensively.

When Gonzalez first started pushing her blond-haired twins in a double stroller, they didn't weigh much more than 5 pounds each. They had been born premature, weighing an average of 2 pounds, 8.5 ounces, and spent the first two months of their lives in the hospital.

At first, Gonzalez couldn't go very fast with the 10-pound stroller, which provided strong support for the developing heads and bodies of her infants. But now they are nearly 4 years old and weigh 30 pounds each.

'HARDER TO PUSH'

"They're much harder to push now, so my workout has increased," Gonzalez said last week after a workday at the Miami-based firm.

"I try to go fast. As a former athlete, I have to push myself to get any kind of workout."

But while she used to exercise with music, now she leaves her MP3 player at home and lets her twins entertain her.

"They're very observant and will see something I'll never see," she said. 'They'll say, 'Mommy, look at the little white flower.' And it will be a tiny little thing 50 yards away."

Gonzalez's route takes them past a big brown dog "that scares the boys every time with his rrrrrrf, rrrrrf." But the boys also get to see Waldo, the cuddly basset hound they adore that lives next door.

"I often collapse at the end of a day," Gonzalez said last week before she prepared dinner for Gabriel, who played with his green truck, while Christopher snored on the couch. "But they are worth it. They are precious cargo."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category