Fitmums & Friends offers running sessions supported by trained volunteer run leaders. You choose your distance, from one to six miles, and go at your pace – our unique shepherding system ensures everyone stays together and no one is left behind.

Our sessions are friendly and fun, and support all abilities, from beginners to those who already exercise more regularly. Everyone is welcome – no need to be a mum or fit – men are welcome too and all ages (over 16 years).

Where, when, what...

Market Weighton Fitmums & Friends meets at 7pm on Tuesday evenings at Market Weighton Fire Station (Cliffe Road, Market Weighton, East Riding of Yorkshire, YO43 3BT). For now, we are meeting outside on the apron and have no access to toilets or any other indoor facilities.

We are offering run distances of 1 to 6 miles. Our groups include a ‘new/return to running’ 1 mile group for those who don’t yet feel comfortable running a mile non-stop – we use walk/run intervals to build stamina and confidence in this group. We also have a ‘step up to 3’ mile group for those who want to move up to 3 miles from the 2 mile group. All groups are supported by a trained volunteer run leader who makes sure everyone can run at their own pace and no one is left behind.

How to book

For the time being, places at club sessions must be booked. To book a place, please complete our booking form. Booking will open on at 7am on a Wednesday and close at 9pm on a Sunday – you will not be able to book outside these times. We ask that you complete the form each week that you would like to come to the next club session to let us know how far you would like to run. This will be matched against the leaders we have available and, if you receive a place, you will then receive an email explaining where and when to meet and naming your leader. If we cannot accommodate you in the mileage group requested, we may be able to offer you a place in a lower or higher mileage group, but you are not obliged to accept that. If unfortunately you do not get into a group one week, you will be prioritised the following week. For any queries, please email marketweightonbookings@fitmums.org.uk.

Membership

Your first three sessions with Fitmums & Friends are free, then membership costs £36 / year.

To sign up for your three trial sessions, please visit https://fitmums.org.uk/trial/sign-up/adult and complete your details. It would also be really helpful if you could please download and log into our membership app, Mumbot, before attending a club session. Mumbot allows you to sign in to club sessions quickly and easily, and to record and view your activity. If you are an Apple user, Mumbot can be downloaded here; if you are a Google user, Mumbot can be downloaded here.

Once you are ready to join Fitmums & Friends, please sign up on our website at https://fitmums.org.uk/join.

Keeping our members as safe as possible

In order to keep our members and volunteers as safe as possible at club sessions, we have a number of Covid-19 precautions in place. Please read through these before attending a club session:

Please make sure you have read our COVID-19 Code of Conduct before attending a club session. By attending a club session, you will be agreeing to abide by this code of conduct.

Please bring and carry a face covering with you. You will not need to wear it while running. But if one of the group has a minor accident and needs help to get back to base, we will wear our face coverings so that we can give and receive help.

Please plan to look after your own belongings, including car keys – there will be no key bucket available.

Please make sure that you social distance and follow all other guidelines throughout the session. If a leader, or another runner, needs to remind you about maintaining a 2m distance, please do not be upset by this – it is intended to protect you and everyone else.

As always, the leader will begin the session with the checklist chat. Please listen carefully as the checklist chat now also includes important COVID-19 messages. So that you can familiarise yourself with these before your first session, please read the new checklist chat here or watch it here.

After the warm up, your group will set out on its run. Please listen to your leader throughout the run. To maintain social distancing, he/she may organise the group by pace before setting off; and may need to give more and firmer directions and instructions on route. These may be spoken or hand signals – which are demonstrated here.

We will be using routes that we have already assessed as being less used by local people and which have more space for social distancing. This may mean that we are using the same routes more often but we hope you will understand why.

Please maintain a social distance of 2m from your fellow runners at all times. On some of our routes we may not be able to maintain social distancing while staying on the footpath. If this is the case, then please only go into the road when it is safe to do so. If it is not, please slow down or walk until there is space to spread out again – and indicate to those behind you that you are slowing down using spoken instructions or hand signals.

We must also maintain a social distance of 2m from any pedestrians we encounter. It is our responsibility to move out of their way. We will slow down, walk or stop while they pass, making sure to give them at least 2m of space.

To keep the group together, we will shepherd where there is enough space to do so and maintain 2m between all members. Where this is not possible, the front runners will enable the group to come back together by circling where there is space to do so.

The session will finish with a group stretch – socially-distanced, of course! After that, please go home promptly. We know you will want to stay and chat, but it is important that we don’t have large groups congregating – for your safety and so that our club can stay open. Instead, check back in on our Facebook page for all the feel-good photos once you get home.

You may also find our reopening FAQs helpful.

We hope our approach reassures you as to the safety measures we have in place to protect our members, volunteers and local community at this time. Of course, we are relying on every member’s cooperation to ensure that we stay safe and open.

Thank you.