Second Annual Healthy Mama, Happy Baby 5k Event

This is the press release for my event.  If you need a little help getting prepared, read my post here on How To Prepare for a 5k.  Hope to see all of you out here for a wonderful Spring day on the farm. : )  -Tara

Second Annual Healthy Mama, Happy Baby 5K Event

To Be Held at Lodestar Farm and Retreat on March 31.

By Claire Hamner Matturro

Run, walk, bike or push a baby stroller on a nature trail that meanders by a creek and through the flowering woods near a lake, get a free mini-massage and snack on healthy foods at the Second Annual Healthy Mama, Happy Baby 5K event March 31, at Lodestar Farm and Retreat, in Southwest Georgia, just over the Florida line.

            “There is no pressure to win a race,” organizer Tara Posey said. “We want this to be an opportunity for families to come out and enjoy the farm while they get some exercise. Whatever comfort level people are at with the 3.1 miles trail is fine with us.” Posey, who is a certified nutritionist, a licensed exercise coach and physical fitness instructor with 14 years experience, and holds a Masters Degree in Physical Therapy, added, “You can push a baby in a stroller or let Dada play with the kids and the farm animals while Mama runs. As long as you come out and get healthy.”

            Registration starts on site at 10 a.m. and the event will start at 10:30 a.m. There is no registration fee required, but donations will be accepted for Lodestar Farm Retreats for Families with Autism. Posey and Lodestar are establishing this special retreat for families with autistic children. This will be a “place where the kids can run freely and spend time with the animals in a secure environment,” Posey said. The retreat will also offer respite services for the parents and cooking classes on food shown to benefit autistic children.

            In addition to the 5K event, a massage therapist will offer mini massages and teach a small class on massages for couples. Full massages will be available for a fee.

            “And that’s not all,” Posey said, “We will have some homemade healthy snacks and a demonstration on how to make them.” Posey, who grew up practically next door to Lodestar Farm, renewed her commitment to a healthy life-style with the birth of her daughter, now two and four months old. “I had already become a certified nutritionist, but I really started digging deep on how to be the healthiest person I could be. I have worked long and hard on creating the healthiest home and body for my most prized possession, my daughter, Arabella.”

            As a part of her commitment to a healthy mama, happy baby lifestyle, Posey helped organized the first Healthy Mama, Happy Baby 5k run last year in Tallahassee. Since then, she and her husband, Cory, have had the opportunity to live at Lodestar Farm, just down the road from where Tara grew up.

            Lodestar Farms, 1523 Lower Hawthorne Trail, in Grady County, GA, was established in 1983, and offers retreats and training, eggs from the farm’s own organically fed chickens, and seasonal fruits and vegetables from the garden. The Farm is located in southern Grady County, approximately 30 miles from Tallahassee, Bainbridge and Thomasville, and only fifteen minutes from Cairo.

            The trail for the 3.1 miles run, walk or bike event, has recently been cleared and improved by Cory and Tara Posey and others who live and work at Lodestar Farms, but was originally a trail the cows made along the edge of the lake and the creek.

            “We are so excited to hold this event in our new home, at Lodestar Farms,” Tara Posey said. “The woods and trails are so beautiful right now, and the air fresh. There are some new calves, and new plants coming up in our organic garden.” For directions and more information, visit Posey at her blog,  http://healthymamahappybaby.blogspot.com/2011/10/meet-tara.html

Thank you so much to the talented Christy Baldwin for these wonderful photographs.  I am so blessed to have her as a friend and photographer.  She is amazing with kids and capturing "the moment". Contact her at Christy Baldwin Photography for more information.