Hi FIT4MOMs! I am Sarah Hanna, mom to Henry (16), Cole (14), Ruby (11), Jane (7), Isaiah (2), and wife to Clay. Henry attends the Science and Engineering program at Norview high school. Cole will be graduating middle school at Northside, Ruby is attending Academy for Discovery at Lakewood and Jane is at Ocean View Elementary but will join her sister at Lakewood next year for 3rd grade. I grew up as a Navy brat born on base in Guam and spent some wonderful years living in California and Italy.
I met my husband, Clay, at a college bible study twenty years ago. I ended up inviting him down to the boardwalk to play beach volleyball and the rest is history. We were married August 30, 2003 in Chesapeake, Virginia and we are coming up on our 18th anniversary this summer. Our life has been an adventure! Clay joined the Army right after we were married and we would move to Columbus, Georgia, Lawton, Oklahoma, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Alexandria, Virginia and Jackson, Tennessee. My husband served in two war time deployments - first to Ramadi right after our first son, Henry, was born in 2004 and then to Baghdad for 15 months in 2006, two weeks after the birth of our second son, Cole. With all the moves, deployments and babies it was always difficult to get into much of a fitness routine.
In 2017, following a few more moves, the births of our two baby girls and grad school for Clay, we decided to move back home to be close to our family. We love the Norfolk area and really enjoy our neighborhood in Ocean View just a short walk from the bay. After the birth of my fifth, I was convinced by my sister in-law to start training for my first race, a 10 miler. Having something to shoot for gave me some needed motivation to lose the extra baby weight, but I still struggled training on my own. As my mile targets went up, I realized I needed help. I saw a posting from a friend on Instagram about FIT4MOM Norfolk so I checked it out and found the Run Club. I emailed Caitlin and tried my first run. I was hooked! Having the support of other moms running together and having the miles all mapped out was what I needed. It is one year this month since I started and my body is stronger than it has ever been!
I never did get to run that first race because of COVID but thankfully FIT4MOM did their own race around Larchmont and I got the satisfaction of running farther than I had ever run in my whole life. I just started attending the 5:30 am Body Boost classes in December and I love that my workouts are done before my kids get up. It has been my life saver with the stress of having all my kids home for virtual school this year! I am turning 40 in July and I am so grateful to have a body again that I can enjoy.
Thank you Caitlin, Whitney, and Erin!
